Neutrophil-related Signature Characterizes Immune Landscape and Predicts Prognosis of Invasive Breast Cancer.

Abstract

As a leading prevalent malignancy, breast cancer remains a significant worldwide health issue. Recent research indicates that neutrophils play a crucial role in breast cancer development. The prognostic significance of neutrophil-related genes (NRGs) or the immune landscape of the neutrophil-related signature in invasive breast cancer (IBC) is, nevertheless, unknown. To uncover innovative therapy alternatives, the significance of the neutrophil-related signatures in IBC was evaluated here. Briefly, a prediction model based on neutrophil-related core prognostic genes and The Cancer Genome Atlas data was created (TCGA). The model may assess IBC patients' prognosis. The IBC data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) confirmed the prognostic accuracy of the model. The overall survival (OS) of patients was worse in the group with a high NRGs score compared to the group with a low NRGs score. In addition, patients with low NRGs scores were considerably more sensitive to vinorelbine, cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, gemcitabine, paclitaxel, 5-fluorouracil, docetaxel, and cisplatin. Patients with low NRGs scores responded better to CTLA-4 and PD-1 treatments. Additionally, the immune microenvironment components were more abundant in patients with low NRGs scores. Moreover, qRT-PCR results confirmed that LEF1 had a higher expression level in tumor samples compared to normal samples, whereas NRG1 and STX11 exhibited lower expression levels in tumor samples than in normal samples. These results suggest that NRGs might be utilized as biomarkers to predict the prognosis of individuals with IBC, thereby paving the way for the creation of customized therapies for IBC.