Background: Although immunotherapy has achieved success in treating various refractory malignancies including gastric cancers (GCs) with DNA mismatch repair deficiency, only a subset of cancer patients are responsive to immunotherapy. Therefore, the identification of useful biomarkers or interventional targets for improving cancer immunotherapy response is urgently needed.
Methods:We investigated the associations between various molecular features and immune signatures using three multi-omics GC datasets. These molecular features included genes, microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), proteins, and pathways, and the immune signatures included CD8+ T cell infiltration, immune cytolytic activity (ICA), and PD-L1 expression. Moreover, we investigated the association between gene mutations and survival prognosis in a gastrointestinal (GI) cancer cohort receiving immunotherapy and two GC cohorts not receiving such a therapy.
Results:The mutations of some important oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes were appreciably associated with immune signatures in GC, including PIK3CA, MTOR, RNF213, TP53, ARID1A, PTEN, ATM, and CDH1. Moreover, a number of genes exhibited a significant expression correlation with immune signatures in GC, including CXCL9,