Molecular characterization of breast cancer: a potential novel immune-related lncRNAs signature

BackgroundAccumulating evidence has demonstrated that immune-related lncRNAs (IRLs) are commonly aberrantly expressed in breast cancer (BC). Thus, we aimed to establish an IRL-based tool to improve prognosis prediction in BC patients.MethodsWe obtained IRL expression profiles in large BC cohorts (N=911) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, in light of the correlation between each IRL and recurrence-free survival (RFS), we screened prognostic IRL signatures to construct a novel RFS nomogram via a Cox regression model. Subsequently, the performance of the IRL-based model was evaluated through discrimination, calibration ability, risk stratification ability and decision curve analysis (DCA).ResultsA total of 52 IRLs were obtained from TCGA. Based on multivariate Cox regression analyses, four IRLs (A1BG-AS1, AC004477.3, AC004585.1 and AC004854.2) and two risk parameters (tumor subtype and TNM stage) were utilized as independent indicators to develop a novel prognostic model. In terms of predictive accuracy, the IRL-based model was distinctly superior to the TNM staging system (AUC: 0.728 VS 0.673, P=0.010). DCA indicated that our nomogram had favorable clinical practicability. In addition, risk stratification analysis showed that the IRL-based tool efficiently divided BC patients into high- and low-risk groups (P<0.001).ConclusionsA novel IRL-based model was constructed to predict the risk of 5-year RFS in BC. Our model can improve the predictive power of the TNM staging system and identify high-risk patients with tumor recurrence to implement more appropriate treatment strategies.