Abstract
Background The tumor immune microenvironment is vital to kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) progression, and immunotherapies have been shown to be effective in the management of KIRC. However, the prognostic genes associated with the tumor immune microenvironment in KIRC have not been fully identified. We obtained the KIRC RNA sequencing data and the clinical characteristics from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. We screened the gene modules associated with the tumor immune microenvironment based on the ESTIMATE algorithm and weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA). Univariate Cox analysis and the LASSO method were used to construct a prognostic model. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the accuracy of our risk model. TIMER and Single-Sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) were used to explore the correlation between prognostic genes and immune cell infiltration. Results Fifty-four genes in modules were significantly associated with the overall survival (OS) time of patients with KIRC. Furthermore, 12 hub genes were selected to construct the prognostic model. The prognostic model showed superior accuracy in both TCGA and ICGC cohorts using ROC curve analysis. Systematic analysis of immune cell infiltration revealed that nine genes were significantly correlated with levels of tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Conclusions Our findings indicated that the tumor immune microenvironment was an important determinant of KIRC outcomes and revealed potential biomarkers for predicting patient OS and for targeted immunotherapies.
Highlights
Malignant kidney tumors are common worldwide, accounting for 2–3% of all cancers [1]
Immune scores and estimate scores were significantly associated with kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) progression, whereas stromal scores were comparable (Figures 1(a)–1(f ))
The results revealed that immune score and estimate score were significantly related to the overall survival (OS) of patients with KIRC
Summary
Malignant kidney tumors are common worldwide, accounting for 2–3% of all cancers [1]. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common subtype and accounts for 70–80% of all kidney cancer cases [2, 3]. Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is associated with the loss of chromosome 3p, and mutations in VHL, PBRM1, SETD2, and BAP1 are involved in KIRC progression and metastases [2]. The tumor immune microenvironment is vital to kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) progression, and immunotherapies have been shown to be effective in the management of KIRC. The prognostic genes associated with the tumor immune microenvironment in KIRC have not been fully identified. Our findings indicated that the tumor immune microenvironment was an important determinant of KIRC outcomes and revealed potential biomarkers for predicting patient OS and for targeted immunotherapies
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