An Inflammation-Related Nine-Gene Signature to Improve Prognosis Prediction of Lung Adenocarcinoma

Background. A novel predictive model was rarely reported based on inflammation-related genes to explore clinical outcomes of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. Methods. Using TCGA database, we screened nine inflammation-related genes with a prognostic value, and LASSO regression was applied for model construction. The predictive value of the prognostic signature developed from inflammation-related genes was assessed by survival assays and multivariate assays. PCA and t-SNE analysis were performed to demonstrate clustering abilities of risk scores. Results. Thirteen inflammation-related genes (BTG2, CCL20, CD69, DCBLD2, GPC3, IL7R, LAMP3, MMP14, NMUR1, PCDH7, PIK3R5, RNF144B, and TPBG) with prognostic values were finally identified. LASSO regression further screened nine candidates (BTG2, CCL20, CD69, IL7R, MMP14, NMUR1, PCDH7, RNF144B, and TPBG). Then, a prognostic prediction model using the above nine genes was constructed. A reliable clustering ability of risk score was demonstrated by PCA and t-SNE assays in 500 LUAD patients. The survival assays revealed that the overall survivals of the high-risk group were distinctly poorer than those of the low-risk group with 1-, 3-, and 5-year AUC values of 0.695, 0.666, and 0.694, respectively. Finally, multivariate assays demonstrated the scoring system as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. Conclusions. Our study shows that the signature of nine inflammation-related genes can be used as a prognostic marker for LUAD.