Identification of Immune Subtypes for Predicting the Prognosis of Patients in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2021 Jan-Dec;20:15330338211045823. doi: 10.1177/15330338211045823.ABSTRACTHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common malignancy with poor prognosis and immune response, which plays an important role in tumor progression. Recently, immunotherapies have revolutionized the therapeutic means of malignancies including HNSCC. However, the relationship between immunophenotypes of HNSCC and its clinical response to immune-checkpoint inhibitors remains unclear. We aim to identify molecular subtyping related to distinct immunophenotypes in HNSCC. Consensus clustering algorithm was conducted for subtyping. Immunophenotypes between subtypes were compared according to infiltrating immunocytes, immune reactions, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) family, immunoinhibitory, immunostimulatory and immune scores. The relationship between immunophenotype and genotype was investigated from gene mutation and tumor mutation burden. The potential response of Immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy was estimated with TIDE and ImmuCellAI algorithms, and immune-checkpoint genes. The immune characteristics were also investigated. Biological functions were annotated by the gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA) algorithm. Two distinct immune subtypes of HNSCC with different survival outcomes, biological characteristics, immunophenotype, and ICB response were identified. The subtype-1 was featured with better prognosis, more infiltrated immunocytes, stronger immu...
Source: Technology in Cancer Research and Treatment - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research