Purpose
Lung adenocarcinoma is the most popular histological type of lung cancer. The 5-year survival rate of lung adenocarcinoma is low. Curpotopsis is a new-found regulated cell death mechanism. Copper binding to lipoylated proteins directly leads to iron-sulfur cluster protein loss, proteotoxic stress, and finally cell death. Similarly, ferroptosis is still a research hotspot. Our goal is to predict the survival of lung adenocarcinoma employing the cuproptosis-related ferroptosis genes (CRFGs).
Methods
First, we conducted the correlation analysis of ferroptosis- and cuproptosis-related genes to identify the most valuable CRFGs. And we illuminated the prognostic value and expression of the four CRFGs. Then, we examined the relevance between CRFGs and the immune microenvironment by ssGSEA analysis and the CIBERSORT algorithm. Lung adenocarcinoma patients in the training set were divided into high- and low-risk groups according to the result of the Lasso-cox analysis. We established a new risk score predictive model according to the CRFGs risk score and critical clinical characteristics, containing N stage and radiation. Finally, we applied receiver operator characteristics (ROC) and calibration curves to verify the prediction ability of the model.
Results
We identified four CRFGs (PANX1, AURKA, EIF2S1, and ACSL3) and successfully created a risk score dividing patients into the low- and high-risk groups. The area under the curve (AUC) of this risk score model displayed good clinical application value in predicting the survival of lung adenocarcinoma. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that the CRFGs were primarily enriched in autophagy, PI3K-Akt, mTOR, and ErbB signaling pathways. High-risk score groups were featured by much more infiltration, a high expression of immune checkpoints except TGFB1, and shorter overall survival time, while low-risk score groups were featured by immunosuppression. In addition, this study further proved that CRFGs score might predict prognosis, drug treatment response to chemotherapy, target therapy, and immunotherapy among lung adenocarcinoma cancer patients.
Conclusion
These results of CRFGs provide new insight into lung adenocarcinoma and might encourage new methods for predicting the survival of lung adenocarcinoma and treating these patients.