Pattern of immune infiltration in lung cancer and its clinical implication

Abstract

BackgroundTumor-infiltrating immune cells play an essential role in prognosis and survival after therapy. However, previous works have not made clear about the diversity of distinct cell types that participate in the immune response. We determined the composition of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and their correlation with prognosis in lung cancer based on a metagene approach (known as CIBERSORT) and online databases. MethodsA total of 22 tumor-infiltrating immune cells were estimated to confirm the associations between the immune infiltration pattern and survival. As a result, the proportions of activated NK cell, monocytes, M0 macrophages and M1 macrophages in 56 cancer samples were significantly higher than those in 56 paracancerous samples. ResultsUnivariate Cox regression analysis displayed that the proportions of NK cell and monocytes were significantly associated with prognosis. Hierarchical clustering analysis predicted five clusters by the method of within sum of squares errors (wss), which exhibited different infiltrating immune cell composition and prognosis. ConclusionsThe proportions of tumor-infiltrating immune cells as well as cluster patterns were associated with the prognosis, which provided potential therapeutic targets for lung cancer.