Senescence as a dictator of patient outcomes and therapeutic efficacies in human gastric cancer

Senescence is believed to be a pivotal player in the onset and progression of tumors as well as cancer therapy. However, the guiding roles of senescence in clinical outcomes and therapy selection for patients with cancer remain obscure, largely due to the absence of a feasible senescence signature. Here, by integrative analysis of single cell and bulk transcriptome data from multiple datasets of gastric cancer patients, we uncovered senescence as a veiled tumor feature characterized by senescence gene signature enriched, unexpectedly, in the noncancerous cells, and further identified two distinct senescence-associated subtypes based on the unsupervised clustering. Patients with the senescence subtype had higher tumor mutation loads and better prognosis as compared with the aggressive subtype. By the machine learning, we constructed a scoring system termed as senescore based on six signature genes: ADH1B, IL1A, SERPINE1, SPARC, EZH2, and TNFAIP2. Higher senescore demonstrated robustly predictive capability for longer overall and recurrence-free survival in 2290 gastric cancer samples, which was independently validated by the multiplex staining analysis of gastric cancer samples on the tissue microarray. Remarkably, the senescore signature served as a reliable predictor of chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic efficacies, with high-senescore patients benefited from immunotherapy, while low-senescore patients were responsive to chemotherapy. Collectively, we report senescence as a heretofore unrecognized hallmark of gastric cancer that impacts patient outcomes and therapeutic efficacy.

Automated summary

We uncover senescence as a hidden tumor feature in gastric cancer patients and identify two distinct senescence-associated subtypes. Patients with the senescence subtype have better prognosis and higher tumor mutation loads. We also develop a scoring system based on six signature genes that can predict patient survival and therapeutic efficacy.