Senescence cell signature associated with poor prognosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, solid histology, and spread through air spaces in lung adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

Cellular senescence is involved in critical processes in tumor progression. Despite this potential relationship, the relationship between tumor cell senescence, prognostic significance, spread through air spaces (STAS), and tumor histology has not been investigated in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). We used the LUAD PanCancer Atlas dataset to assess senescence cell signature (SCS) based on the SenMayo gene set. We examined the relationship between SCS, prognostic significance, STAS, and tumor histology. This relationship was confirmed in independent LUAD datasets by validation using immunohistochemical senescence markers. In the LUAD PanCancer Atlas dataset, patients with high SCS expression had a higher prevalence of solid histology and STAS patterns than those with low SCS expression. In the independent LUAD datasets, high p21 expression and low HMGB1 expression were correlated with solid histology or STAS patterns. SCS level was also independent prognostic factor in four different LUAD datasets. The HMGB1 expression was an independent prognostic factor in the independent LUAD dataset in multivariate analysis. The expression of p21 and the presence of solid histology were linked to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. In LUAD cell lines, inducing senescence with a DNA-damaging agent led to an increase in EMT marker expression. Our findings suggest a strong link between senescence, EMT, and solid histology, offering valuable insight into how cancer cell senescence may promote tumor progression through particular pathways.