A prognostic 15-gene model based on differentially expressed genes among metabolic subtypes in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

The outcomes of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) vary widely, and about 40% of them could not be cured by the standard first-line treatment, R-CHOP, which could be due to the high heterogeneity of DLBCL. Here, we aim to construct a prognostic model based on the genetic signature of metabolic heterogeneity of DLBCL to explore therapeutic strategies for DLBCL patients. Clinical and transcriptomic data of one training and four validation cohorts of DLBCL were obtained from the GEO database. Metabolic subtypes were identified by PAM clustering of 1,916 metabolic genes in the 7 major metabolic pathways in the training cohort. DEGs among the metabolic clusters were then analyzed. In total, 108 prognosis-related DEGs were identified. Through univariable Cox and LASSO regression analyses, 15 DEGs were used to construct a risk score model. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with high risk were significantly worse than those with low risk (OS: HR 2.86, 95%CI 2.04-4.01, p < 0.001; PFS: HR 2.42, 95% CI 1.77-3.31, p < 0.001). This model was also associated with OS in the four independent validation datasets (GSE10846: HR 1.65, p = 0.002; GSE53786: HR 2.05, p = 0.02; GSE87371: HR 1.85, p = 0.027; GSE23051: HR 6.16, p = 0.007) and PFS in the two validation datasets (GSE87371: HR 1.67, p = 0.033; GSE23051: HR 2.74, p = 0.049). Multivariable Cox analysis showed that in all datasets, the risk model could predict OS independent of clinical prognosis factors (p < 0.05). Compared with the high-risk group, patients in the low-risk group predictively respond to R-CHOP (p = 0.0042), PI3K inhibitor (p < 0.05), and proteasome inhibitor (p < 0.05). Therefore, in this study, we developed a signature model of 15 DEGs among 3 metabolic subtypes, which could predict survival and drug sensitivity in DLBCL patients.