A TRP Family Based Signature for Prognosis Prediction in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Purpose. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a classical type of head and neck cancers, with heterogeneous clinical outcome. This project is set out to create a robust risk signature based on TRP family genes (TFGs) for prognosis evaluation in HNSCC. Methods. Based on the HNSCC sample data from the TCGA website, we integrated expression profile of TFGs for 490 HNSCC cases. We explore the interactions among TFGs using STRING tool. The TFGs-based signature (TFBS) was created by Cox relative analyses. In addition, we conducted GSEA to identify the underlying signaling pathways of the specific TFGs in HNSCC. The immune landscape of HNSCC patients was analyzed by CIBERSORT and ssGSEA algorithms. Results. A total of 6 TFGs (TRPC1, TRPC3, TRPC6, TRPV2, TRPV4, and TRPM8) closely associated with prognosis of HNSCC cases were screened to create TFBS. TFBS predicted that the TFBS-high group presented dismal patient outcome. Cox regression revealed the favorable independent value of TFBS. ROC analysis showed the robust power of TFBS for prognosis forecasting. GSEA determined several crucial pathways related with HNSCC, which are the p53 pathway, TNF-alpha signaling via NFKB, and hypoxia. Moreover, immune-related analysis showed that patients in the TFBS-high group were more likely in immunosuppressive status. Conclusion. Our proposed TFBS could serve as a favorable indicator to forecast the survival outcome of HNSCC cases and offer prominent therapy guidance.