Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment
The processes of cancer initiation, progression, and response to therapy are affected by the sex of cancer patients. Immunotherapy responses largely depend on the tumor microenvironment (TME), but how sex may shape some TME features, remains unknown. Here, we analyzed immune infiltration signatures...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Molecular Oncology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.13203 |
| _version_ | 1828728989295837184 |
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| author | Junwei Han Yang Yang Xiangmei Li Jiashuo Wu Yuqi Sheng Jiayue Qiu Qian Wang Ji Li Yalan He Liang Cheng Yan Zhang |
| author_facet | Junwei Han Yang Yang Xiangmei Li Jiashuo Wu Yuqi Sheng Jiayue Qiu Qian Wang Ji Li Yalan He Liang Cheng Yan Zhang |
| author_sort | Junwei Han |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The processes of cancer initiation, progression, and response to therapy are affected by the sex of cancer patients. Immunotherapy responses largely depend on the tumor microenvironment (TME), but how sex may shape some TME features, remains unknown. Here, we analyzed immune infiltration signatures across 19 cancer types from 1771 male and 1137 female patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas to evaluate how sex may affect the tumor mutational burden (TMB), immune scores, stromal scores, tumor purity, immune cells, immune checkpoint genes, and functional pathways in the TME. Pan‐cancer analyses showed higher TMB and tumor purity scores, as well as lower immune and stromal scores in male patients as compared to female patients. Lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous carcinoma, kidney papillary carcinoma, and head and neck squamous carcinoma showed the most significant sex biases in terms of infiltrating immune cells, immune checkpoint gene expression, and functional pathways. We further focused on lung adenocarcinoma samples in order to identify and validate sex‐specific immune cell biomarkers with prognostic potential. Overall, sex may affect the tumor microenvironment, and sex‐specific TME biomarkers may help tailor cancer immunotherapy in certain cancer types. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:25:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-58c543fa0e6f4c16910087baf97b8e14 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1574-7891 1878-0261 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:25:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Molecular Oncology |
| spelling | doaj.art-58c543fa0e6f4c16910087baf97b8e142022-12-22T03:29:28ZengWileyMolecular Oncology1574-78911878-02612022-06-0116112153217310.1002/1878-0261.13203Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironmentJunwei Han0Yang Yang1Xiangmei Li2Jiashuo Wu3Yuqi Sheng4Jiayue Qiu5Qian Wang6Ji Li7Yalan He8Liang Cheng9Yan Zhang10College of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaCollege of Bioinformatics Science and Technology Harbin Medical University ChinaSchool of Life Science and Technology Computational Biology Research Center Harbin Institute of Technology ChinaThe processes of cancer initiation, progression, and response to therapy are affected by the sex of cancer patients. Immunotherapy responses largely depend on the tumor microenvironment (TME), but how sex may shape some TME features, remains unknown. Here, we analyzed immune infiltration signatures across 19 cancer types from 1771 male and 1137 female patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas to evaluate how sex may affect the tumor mutational burden (TMB), immune scores, stromal scores, tumor purity, immune cells, immune checkpoint genes, and functional pathways in the TME. Pan‐cancer analyses showed higher TMB and tumor purity scores, as well as lower immune and stromal scores in male patients as compared to female patients. Lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous carcinoma, kidney papillary carcinoma, and head and neck squamous carcinoma showed the most significant sex biases in terms of infiltrating immune cells, immune checkpoint gene expression, and functional pathways. We further focused on lung adenocarcinoma samples in order to identify and validate sex‐specific immune cell biomarkers with prognostic potential. Overall, sex may affect the tumor microenvironment, and sex‐specific TME biomarkers may help tailor cancer immunotherapy in certain cancer types.https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.13203immune and stromal scoressex differencessex‐specific prognostic biomarkerstumor microenvironmenttumor mutational burden |
| spellingShingle | Junwei Han Yang Yang Xiangmei Li Jiashuo Wu Yuqi Sheng Jiayue Qiu Qian Wang Ji Li Yalan He Liang Cheng Yan Zhang Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment Molecular Oncology immune and stromal scores sex differences sex‐specific prognostic biomarkers tumor microenvironment tumor mutational burden |
| title | Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| title_full | Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| title_fullStr | Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| title_short | Pan‐cancer analysis reveals sex‐specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| title_sort | pan cancer analysis reveals sex specific signatures in the tumor microenvironment |
| topic | immune and stromal scores sex differences sex‐specific prognostic biomarkers tumor microenvironment tumor mutational burden |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.13203 |
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