Identification of Immune-Related Risk Characteristics and Prognostic Value of Immunophenotyping in TNBC

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is not sensitive to targeted therapy with HER-2 monoclonal antibody and endocrine therapy due to lack of ER, PR, and HER-2 receptors. TNBC is a breast cancer subtype with the worst prognosis and the highest mortality rate compared with other subtypes. Materials and Methods: Breast cancer-related data were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and 116 cases of triple-negative breast cancer were identified from the data. GSE31519 dataset was retrieved from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, comprising a total of 68 cases with TNBC. Survival analysis was performed based on immune score, infiltration score and mutation score to explore differences in prognosis of different immune types. Analysis of differentially expressed genes was conducted and GSEA analysis based on these genes was conducted to explore the potential mechanism. Results: The findings showed that comprehensive immune typing is highly effective and accurate in assessing prognosis of TNBC patients. Analysis showed that MMP9, CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11 and CD7 are key genes that may affect immune typing of TNBC patients and play an important role in prediction of prognosis in TNBC patients. Conclusion: The current study presents an evaluation system based on immunophenotyping, which provides a more accurate prognostic evaluation tool for TNBC patients. Differentially expressed genes can be targeted to improve treatment of TNBC.