CD79A work as a potential target for the prognosis of patients with OSCC: analysis of immune cell infiltration in oral squamous cell carcinoma based on the CIBERSORTx deconvolution algorithm

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the abundance of infiltrating tumor immune cells in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and to search for potential targets that can predict patient prognosis. METHODS: A total of 400 samples from 210 patients with OSCC were collected using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. CIBERSORTx was used to evaluate the infiltration abundance of tumor immune cells. Potential target genes were searched to predict patient prognosis through case grouping, differential analysis, and enrichment analysis. Surgical excisional tissue sections of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma admitted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, from 2015 to 2018 were collected and followed up. RESULTS: The CIBERSORTx deconvolution algorithm was used to analyze the infiltration abundance of immune cells in the samples. Cases with a high infiltration abundance of naive and memory B lymphocytes improved the prognosis of OSCC patients. The prognosis of patients with low CD79A expression was significantly better than that of patients with high CD79A expression. CONCLUSION: CD79A can predict the infiltration abundance of B lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment of patients with OSCC. CD79A is a potential target for predicting the prognosis of patients with OSCC. This study provides novel ideas for the treatment of OSCC and for predicting patient prognosis.