Constructing Immune Related Prognosis Score Based on Signatures to Predict the Benefit of Immunotherapy in Colorectal Cancer

Since FDA approved immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of colorectal cancer in 2017, there have been significant differences in the response of colorectal cancer patients to immune checkpoint inhibitors. In order to achieve better clinical benefits in patients with colorectal cancer in immunotherapy, we urgently need to find a biomarker to evaluate whether colorectal cancer patients respond to immunotherapy. The ssGSEA was implemented to construct immune related prognostic score (IRPS) of 2740 patients in 19 cohorts. Subsequently, an extensive analysis was performed to explore the relationship between IRPS and immune score, prognostic significance, microsatellite status, immunogenomic factors, cancer genotype. The IRPS is correlated to important immunophenotypic factors such as neoantigen load and mutation load. Further analysis confirmed that patients with high IRPS had a better response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Based on these results, we can find that the IRPS may be an available tool for the prediction of immunotherapy efficacy in colorectal cancer patients.