Development and validation of an immune gene set-based prognostic signature in cutaneous melanoma.

Abstract

We aimed to fully understand the landscape of the skincutaneous melanoma (SKCM) microenvironment and develop an immune prognostic signature that can predict the prognosis for SKCM patients. RNAsequencingdata and clinical information were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlasand Gene Expression Omnibusdatabases. The immune-prognostic signature was constructed by LASSO Cox regression analysis. We calculated the relative abundance of 29 immune-related gene sets based on the mRNA expression profilesof 314 SKCM patients in the Cancer Genome Atlas training set. Hierarchical clustering was performed to classify SKCM patients intothree clusters: immunity-high, -mediumand -low. The values of our prognostic model in predicting disease progression, metastasis and immunotherapeutic responses were also validated. In conclusion, the prognostic model demonstrated a powerful ability to distinguish and predict SKCM patients'prognosis.