Role of immune related genes in predicting prognosis and immune response in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Immunotherapy has developed rapidly in recent years. This study aimed to establish a prognostic signature for immune‐related genes (IRGs) and explore related potential immunotherapies. The RNA‐seq transcriptome profiles and clinicopathological information of patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Differentially expressed IRGs in tumors and normal tissues were screened and a risk score signature was constructed to predict the prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Receiver operating characteristic curves, survival analyses, and correlation analyses were used to explore the clinical application of this model. We further analyzed the differences in clinical characteristics, immune infiltration, somatic mutations, and treatment sensitivity between the high‐ and low‐risk populations characterized by the prognostic models. The immune cell infiltration score and immune‐related pathway activity were calculated using the single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) set enrichment analysis. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes, and GSEA were used to explore the underlying mechanisms. We constructed a nine‐IRG formula to predict the prognosis in HCC patients. The higher the risk score, the higher the malignancy of the tumor and the worse the prognosis. There were significant differences in immune related processes between the high‐ and low‐risk groups. TP53 and CTNNB1 mutations were significantly different between different risk groups. The expression of model gene was closely related to the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs. This risk score model, which is helpful for the individualized treatment of patients with different risk factors, could be a reliable prognostic tool for HCC patients.