A Ferroptosis-Related Gene Signature for Predicting Survival and Immunotherapy Effect in Renal Cancer

Abstract

Background. Most recently, no efficient prognostic indictor is present for kidney cancer. Thus, we aimed to build and validate a new prognostic gene signature for renal cancer patients using the Cancer Genomic Atlas (TCGA). Methods. A “time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (tROC)” curve was generated, and a log-rank test was performed to assess the performance of the biomarker in training and validation. A “ferroptosis-related gene signature” was developed. In different training and validations sets, tROC and log-rank test were used to validate the biomarker’s performance. Results. In the training set with a $P$ value less than 0.01 and the validation set, the “gene signature” was significantly correlated with survival. Eventually, it was found that the ferroptosis-related gene signature was directly correlated with immune score and the score of tumor mutation, suggesting its role in predicting response to immunotherapy. Conclusion. We developed and validated a “ferroptosis-related gene signature” that can be sued for patients with kidney cancer. It can also assist in facilitating the plan for treatment and risk stratification.