A Seven-Gene Signature with Close Immune Correlation Was Identified for Survival Prediction of Lung Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Lung adenocarcinoma is the most life-threatening malignancy with high incidence and poor long-term survival. The crucial role of tumor immunity reveals the significance of exploring immune-related prognostic predictors in lung adenocarcinoma. MATERIAL/METHODS: Immune-related genes were screened out applying the ESTIMATE algorithm. The Cancer Genome Atlas Lung Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-LUAD) dataset was trained for the construction of Cox proportional hazard model. Univariate Cox and Lasso regression analysis was conducted to reduce the overfitting of model. Nomogram integrated the signature and clinicopathological characteristics was established for prognosis prediction of LUAD. The GSE30219, GSE41271, and GSE42127 datasets were analyzed for external validation. LUAD patients were separated into low-risk and high-risk subgroups based on the optimum cutoff threshold of calculated risk score. The predictive value of the signature was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, Harrell’s C-index, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and calibration curve. Clinical- and immune-correlation of the signature was further performed. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed for functional exploration. RESULTS: An immune-related signature containing 7 genes was identified. The signature exhibited reliable performance in the prediction of overall survival for LUAD with the C-index being 0.72. The areas under the curve (AUCs) of the model in 1-year risk prediction were 0.781, 0.797, 0.659, and 0.822 for TCGA-LUAD, GSE30219, GSE41271, and GSE42127 datasets, respectively. In all datasets, the signature proved to an independent risk factor for LUAD. Correlation analyses and GSEA further revealed the close relationship between the predictive biomarker and tumor immunity. CONCLUSIONS: A Cox proportional hazard model consisting of 7 genes was identified for prognostic prediction of LUAD. The signature was highly correlated with immunity and deserves further exploration.