Prognostic signature of ovarian cancer based on 14 tumor microenvironment genes

Abstract Background Ovarian cancer is one of the lethal gynecological in women. Tumor microenvironment (TME) is emerging as a pivotal biomarker for patients’ therapeutic sensitivity and prognosis. In this study, we proposed to explore the prognostic role of TME-related genes in ovarian cancer. Methods The data of whole genome expression profiles and detailed clinicopathological information of three cohorts of ovarian cancer patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Univariate Cox regression analysis was used to screen TME-related genes with significantly prognostic value based on TCGA cohort. LASSO Cox regression analysis was adapted to the construction of prognostic model. Ovarian cancer cohorts from GEO were used as validation set for verifying the reliability of the prognostic model. Relative infiltrating proportion of 22 immune cells were estimated through CIBERSORT software. Results This study identified a total of 14 TME-related genes that finally incorporated into the prognostic model. The risk score that calculated through the prognostic model was proved as an independent prognostic signature in ovarian cancer. Nomogram that contains TNM stage and risk score could reliably predict the long-term overall survival probability. Additionally, risk score was significantly associated with the relative infiltrating proportion of several immune cells in ovarian cancer and mRNA levels of some immune checkpoint genes. Conclusions This study constructed a prognostic model for ovarian cancer, which was closely associated with the prognosis and immune status. This should provide novel clue for prognosis study in ovarian cancer.