Pan-cancer Analyses of Immunogenic Cell Death-derived Gene Signatures:
Potential Biomarkers for Prognosis and Immunotherapy
Abstract
Background Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a type of regulated cell
death that is sufficient to trigger an adaptive im-mune response. ICD
has been demonstrated to activate the tumor-specific immune response,
and inducing ICD would be a potential treatment strategy. Aims The
biomarkers of ICD and their relationships with tumor microenvironment,
clinical feathers, and immunotherapy response are not fully understood
in the context of the clinic. We therefore conducted pan-cancer analyses
of ICD gene signatures in 33 cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas
database. Methods and results We identified key genes that had strong
relationships with survival and tumor microenvironment. Besides, we
predicted therapeutic agents targeting ICD genes and explored the
potential mechanisms of gemcitabine to induce ICD. Moreover, we
determined an ICD score based on the ICD genes and found that the ICD
score was associated with patient prognosis, clinical features, tumor
microenvironment, radiotherapy access, and immunotherapy response. The
high ICD score was associated with the immune-hot phenotype, and the low
ICD score was associated with the immune-cold phenotype. Conclusion We
discovered the potential of the ICD gene signatures as ICD biomarkers in
pan-cancer, which may provide new insights into immuno-phenotypic
assessment and cancer therapeutic strategies, allowing more patients to
benefit from immunotherapy.