A novel cuproptosis-related lncRNA prognostic signature for predicting treatment and immune environment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is an urgent public health issue due to its poor prognosis and resistance to anti-cancer agents. However, the role of cuproptosis, a newly identified form cell death, in applications of HNSCC is still not a known. In this study, single-cell RNA sequencing data was used to explore cuproptosis-related gene expression in the tumour microenvironment. A prognostic model was constructed based on the cuproptosis-related lncRNA. Various methods were performed to predict the overall survival (OS) of different risk score patients and explore difference in enrichment function and pathways between the risk score patients. Finally, a series of immunogenomic landscape analyses were performed and evaluated the immune function, immune infiltration and sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents. Cancer cell cluster expressed the essential cuproptosis-related gene. As the risk score increased of HNSCC patients, a significant decrease in survival status and time occurred for patients in the high-risk score patient. The AUC for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-years OS were 0.679, 0.713 and 0.656, indicating that the model regarded as an independent prognostic signature in comparison with the clinical-pathological characteristics. As a results of GO, the immune function and immune infiltration of different risk score patients were assessed, revealing significant differences in T cell function and abundance of different types of T cells. Low-risk score patients are relatively insensitive to chemotherapy agents such as docetaxel and cisplatin, and easily resistant to immunotherapy. A cuproptosis-related lncRNA prognostic model was constructed to predict OS of HNSCC patients and provided the newly therapeutic strategies.