Open AccessIdentification of three immune molecular subtypes associated with immune profiles, immune checkpoints, and clinical outcome in multiple myeloma
Author(s) -
Gao Guangtao,
Fang Mengkun,
Xu Peipei,
Chen Bing
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cancer medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 2045-7634
DOI - 10.1002/cam4.4221
Subject(s) - immune system , immunotherapy , immune checkpoint , biology , stage (stratigraphy) , immunity , immunology , multiple myeloma , computational biology , oncology , cancer research , medicine , paleontology
Abstract Purpose To identify the immune molecular subtype for MM to help achieve individualized and precise targeted therapy. Methods The GDC API was used to download the TCGA‐MM profile dataset, which contains 859 samples in total, all of which were anterior to the standard treatment after diagnosis. Moreover, 282, 298, and 258 samples were stage I, stage II, and stage III separately. We used the immune gene expression profile for consistent clustering; and used the R software package ConsensusClusterPlus to sort the immune molecular subtypes. Correlation between subtypes and clinical features, immunity, and prognosis was then analyzed. Results A total of 859 tumor samples were separated into these three subtypes, which were not meaningfully related to age or sex but showed a remarkable association with stage. The results suggested that obvious differences in immune metagene expression and expression of 10 immune checkpoint genes appeared among the three subtypes. Conclusion The three subtypes are distinctly different in terms of immune metagenes, immune checkpoint molecules, and clinical prognosis. The discovery of the immune microenvironment of MM could further reveal the strategy for immunotherapy in MM and provide a promising candidate prognostic tool for survival.