Genomic analysis and clinical implications of immune cell infiltration in gastric cancer

Abstract

The immune infiltration of patients with gastric cancer (GC) is closely associated with clinical prognosis. However, previous studies failed to explain the different subsets of immune cells involved in immune responses and diverse functions. The present study aimed to uncover the differences in immunophenotypes in a tumor microenvironment (TME) between adjacent and tumor tissues and to explore their therapeutic targets. In our study, the relative proportion of immune cells in 229 GC tumor samples and 22 paired matched tissues was evaluated with a Cell type Identification By Estimating Relative Subsets Of known RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) algorithm. The correlation between immune cell infiltration and clinical information was analyzed. The proportion of 22 immune cell subsets was assessed to determine the correlation between each immune cell type and clinical features. Three molecular subtypes were identified with ‘CancerSubtypes’ R-package. Functional enrichment was analyzed in each subtype. The profiles of immune infiltration in the GC cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) varied significantly between the 22 paired tissues. TNM stage was associated with M1 macrophages and eosinophils. Follicular helper T cells were activated at the late stage. Monocytes were associated with radiation therapy. Three clustering processes were obtained via the ‘CancerSubtypes’ R-package. Each cancer subtype had a specific molecular classification and subtype-specific characterization. These findings showed that the CIBERSOFT algorithm could be used to detect differences in the composition of immune-infiltrating cells in GC samples, and these differences might be an important driver of GC progression and treatment response.

A Non-canonical Wnt Signature Correlates With Lower Survival in Gastric Cancer

“…The presence of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) in the tumor microenvironment is usually associated with poor prognosis ( Fridman et al, 2012 ) and has been characterized recently in GC ( Li et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ). To determine if the non-canonical Wnt signatures are correlated with immune cell infiltration, the correlation between the two gene signatures and markers of specific immune cell types was assessed using GEPIA (“signature-to-signature” comparison).…”

Effect of LAMA4 on Prognosis and Its Correlation with Immune Infiltration in Gastric Cancer

“…Cumulative evidence indicates that immune cell infiltration can affect the progression and prognosis of GC [ 33 , 34 ]. We evaluated the correlation between LAMA4 expression and immune cell infiltration in GC.…”

Mining the TCGA Database for Microenvironment‐Related Genes with Prognostic Value in Gastric Cancer

“…Importantly, in this study, a series of bioinformatics analyses indicated that MCEMP1 might be an indicator of the status of the TME in GC patients. Furthermore, many studies have demonstrated that the TME is signi cantly correlated with the initiation, progression and metastasis of GC [14,15] and that TICs are closely related to the clinical prognosis of GC patients [16].…”