Profiles and clinical significance of immune cell infiltration in pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BackgroundIt has been well defined that tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) play critical roles in pancreatic cancer (PAAD) progression. The aim of this research was to comprehensively explore the composition of TIICs in PAAD and their potential clinical significance. Methods178 samples from TCGA and 63 samples from GSE57495 dataset were enrolled into our study. ImmuCellAI was applied to calculate the infiltrating abundance of 24 immune cell types in PAAD and further survival analysis revealed the prognostic values of TIICs in PAAD. Moreover, Gene ontology (GO) enticement analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between low- and high-risk groups was performed as well. ResultsDifferent kinds of TIICs had distinct infiltrating features. Besides, Specific TIICs subsets had notable prognostic values in PAAD. We further established a 6-TIICs signature to assess the prognosis of PAAD patients. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses both suggested the significant prognostic value of the signature in PAAD. We next extracted 1,334 DEGs based on the risk model, and the hub modules in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs were involved in regulating immune-related biological processes. ConclusionsOverall, the current study illuminated the immune cells infiltrating landscape in PAAD and developed a TIICs-dependent prognostic signature, which could be used as an effective prognostic classifier for PAAD patients.