Identification of immune-related cells and genes in the breast invasive carcinoma microenvironment

Abstract

The clinical prognosis of breast cancer is closely related to its infiltrating immune status. The study sought to -explore tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TILs) and immune-associated genes in the tumor microenvironment of-breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA). The ESTIMATE algorithm was used to evaluate the microenvironment of-breast cancer patients in TCGA database. The tumor's matrix score and immune score were obtained. The-median was divided into two sub groups according to the median of the score, and the correlation between the-score and prognosis was also discussed. Differentially expressed genes were screened from two subgroups with-high and low score of breast cancer, and the differentially expressed genes were analyzed by GO and KEGG-enrichment to explore their possible molecular functions, biological processes, cellular components and signal-pathways involved in gene enrichment. It was found that there was a significant correlation between immune-score and five-year survival rate, and the high score group had a better prognosis. Macrophage M1 and T cell-CD8+ cells were positively related to 5-year overall survival in patients with breast invasive carcinoma.-However, Macrophage M2 was negatively related to 5-year overall survival. We also observed that the low-expression of four genes (CLEC3A, MCTS1, PDP1 and TCP1,) was related to favorable survival outcomes. High-expression of FOXP3, CXCL9, CCR5, CXCR3, and CD37 was related to a high overall survival rate in BRCA. We-identified a list of immune – related cells and genes that are useful for Prognostic evaluation and individualized-treatment of BRCA