A Novel Immune-Related Signature to Predict Prognosis and Immune Infiltration of Cervical Cancer

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignances among women globally. This study aimed to construct a novel immune-related signature to predict the prognosis and immune infiltration of cervical cancer. MATERIAL/METHODS: Transcriptomic profiles and corresponding clinical information of cervical cancer patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and GEO database. The hub immune-related genes were screened and selected using Cox regression analysis and LASSO regression analysis. A novel signature was established based on the expression levels and corresponding coefficients of the selected hub immune-related genes. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and ROC curve illustrated the prognostic value of this novel signature in cervical cancer. The predictive accuracy and stability of this novel signature were confirmed in the validation cohort, internal testing set and external testing set. Then, a nomogram was constructed to predict individual survival probability of cervical cancer patient. The association between the risk scores of novel signature and immune infiltration was investigated through single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). RESULTS: Ten hub immune-related genes (TFRC, SPP1, CAMP, CSF2, TUBB3, ZAP70, CHIT1, LEPR, DLL4, and DES) were selected to construct a novel signature. The risk score of this novel signature could be an independent prognostic factor in cervical cancer, which divided patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. The patients in high-risk groups showed significantly worse overall survival rates than those in low-risk groups in all training and validation cohorts (all P<0.05). A nomogram model was constructed based on the risk score of the novel signature and other clinical characteristics, which achieved the highest clinical net benefit across the entire range of reasonable threshold probabilities (concordance index=0.813). Furthermore, gene enrichment analysis revealed that the novel signature was closely related with immunology. The novel signature was negatively correlated with the infiltration of most immune cell types, especially T cell subsets (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The novel signature could comprehensively predict the prognosis and immune infiltration of cervical cancer. It may provide new insights for the precise treatment in cervical cancer.