Development and Validation of a Robust Immune Prognostic Signature for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is among the most destructive of tumors, leading to considerable morbidity and mortality. Abnormal immune microenvironment is closely associated with tumor progression. This study aimed to construct a robust immune prognostic model for HNSCC. The RNA-seq transcriptome data and clinical information of HNSCC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The key pathways and transcriptional factors (TFs) that are correlated with significantly altered immune related genes were identified. A robust immune prognostic model was constructed and further validated using a discovery-validation cohort design. An immune prognostic signature-based nomogram model was also developed. We have identified 400 significantly changed immune related genes in HNSCC. In addition, functional analysis of the altered immune related genes revealed many biological functions and pathways that might affect the tumor immune microenvironment. FOXP3, SNAI2, and STAT1 were identified as the hub TFs for regulating immunological changes in HNSCC. Moreover, an immune related gene-based prognostic signature significantly associated with the overall survival (OS) of HNSCC was constructed in the discovery cohort, and successfully validated in the validation cohort. Finally, a nomogram model based on immune prognostic signature was built and exhibited good performance for predicting the OS of HNSCC. In conclusion, the immune prognostic model is robust for predicting the prognosis of HNSCC and may evolve as a promising tool for risk evaluation and therapeutic selection.