Construction and validation of an EGFR-related risk signature identified as a prognostic biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a significant subtype of lung cancer, contributing to high mortality rates and posing substantial challenges to public health. This study aims to explore the significance of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-related gene in the progression and prognosis of LUAD.

METHODS

Patient RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and clinical data were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression, we then generated a multigene signature of EGFR signaling-related genes (ESRGs) for the prognostic prediction of LUAD. We investigated the relationship between gene expression and immune cell infiltration by employing single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). The potential functional role of the gene was evaluated through GSEA. Additionally, the association between expression and clinical data was investigated. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to assess expression in 88 cases of invasive pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

RESULTS

Univariate Cox regression analysis identified that increased expression of correlated with poorer overall survival (OS). exhibited significantly elevated expression levels in LUAD tissues. Moreover, elevated levels of gene expression correlated strongly with advanced tumor (T), node (N), and metastasis (M) stages and were significantly associated with immune cell infiltration in LUAD. Furthermore, marked increases in protein expression were observed in patients diagnosed with invasive pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that plays a crucial oncogenic role in LUAD. Increased expression in LUAD was associated with disease progression, an unfavorable prognosis, and dysregulated immune cell infiltration.