Prediction of Survival Outcome in Lower-Grade Glioma Using a Prognostic Signature with 33 Immune-Related Gene Pairs

BACKGROUND: Lower-grade glioma (LGG) is one of the prevalent malignancies threatening human health, with considerable intrinsic heterogeneities in their biological behavior. Previous studies have revealed that the immune component is a key factor influencing the formation and development of malignancies. In this study, we aim to use a novel approach to develop a prognostic signature of immune-related gene pairs (IRGPs) to determine the survival outcome of patients with LGG. METHODS: Transcriptomic profiles and clinical data for LGG were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) databases, and used as training and validation data sets, respectively. IRGPs influencing the overall survival (OS) of patients with LGG in the training data set were screened by performing univariate Cox regression analysis. Next, a prognostic IRGPs signature was constructed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. Finally, we cross-validated the two databases to verify the stability of the prognostic signature. RESULTS: A total of 33 IRGPs influencing prognosis of LGG in the training data set were included in the prognostic signature. Patients with high risk scores (RSs) in the training and validation data sets had a poorer OS than those with low RSs. Moreover, significant differences were observed in tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) between high- and low-RS groups. Functional enrichment analyses results revealed that genes in the high-RS group were enriched in the immune-related activities and developmental processes. CONCLUSION: The prognostic signature containing 33 IRGPs has a significant correlation with OS and relative levels of immune cells associated with LGG. The results of the present study provide new insights into the prediction of survival outcome and therapeutic response of LGG.