Identification of immune subtypes of cervical squamous cell carcinoma predicting prognosis and immunotherapy responses

Abstract

Background The main limitation of current immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of cervical cancer comes from the fact that it benefits only a minority of patients. The study aims to develop a classification system to identify immune subtypes of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), thereby helping to screen candidates who may respond to ICIs. Methods A real-world cervical SCC cohort of 36 samples were analyzed. We used a nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm to separate different expression patterns of immune-related genes (IRGs). The immune characteristics, potential immune biomarkers, and somatic mutations were compared. Two independent data sets containing 555 samples were used for validation. Results Two subtypes with different immunophenotypes were identified. Patients in sub1 showed favorable progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the training and validation cohorts. The sub1 was remarkably related to increased immune cell abundance, more enriched immune activation pathways, and higher somatic mutation burden. Also, the sub1 group was more sensitive to ICIs, while patients in the sub2 group were more likely to fail to respond to ICIs but exhibited GPCR pathway activity. Finally, an 83-gene classifier was constructed for cervical SCC classification. Conclusion This study establishes a new classification to further understand the immunological diversity of cervical SCC, to assist in the selection of candidates for immunotherapy.

Immune and inflammation: related factor alterations as biomarkers for predicting prognosis and responsiveness to PD-1 monoclonal antibodies in cervical cancer

“…7 B). Immune cells play pivotal roles in the TME, and different proportions may reflect different clinicopathological characteristics [ 33 ]. Thus, we performed correlation analysis between the IRRG model and immune cell proportions with ssGSEA.…”

“…For instance, Yu et al [ 51 ] established an immune infiltration-based signature and demonstrated that a better prognosis in CC patients seemed to be relatively immune-inflamed with greater immune cell infiltration, which was consistent with our findings. Li et al [ 33 ] established a classification of immune’s subtypes of CC predicting prognosis and immunotherapy responses. However, the association of immune infiltration and inflammation was not definitively pinpointed; and the signatures were based on bioinformatics analysis of public data and lacked recruited verification cohorts for predicting immunotherapy response.…”

A predictive study of metabolism reprogramming in cervical carcinoma

“…The low-risk group featured high immune cell infiltration such as CD8 T cells, M1 macrophages, and resting dendritic cells. Indeed, previous studies have suggested that immune cell infiltration in the microenvironment can influence the efficacy of immunotherapy, and cells such as CD8 T cells and M1 macrophages in the microenvironment can support immunotherapy (16,17). Therefore, the risk score model may provide insights into the potential efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with ICC.…”

Clinical Treatment Study of Secondary Multiple Squamous Cell Carcinoma with Psoriasis Vulgaris

“…Cornulin genes are expressed in the prickly and cellular layers of the healthy mucous membrane, with the cytoplasmic and perinuclear area being the most prominent. [ 7 ] A total of 36 samples from a real-world cervical SCC cohort were examined. To identify various expression patterns of immune-related genes, we employed a nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) technique (IRGs).…”