The Multi-Omics Landscape and Clinical Relevance of the Immunological Signature of Phagocytosis Regulators: Implications for Risk Classification and Frontline Therapies in Skin Cutaneous Melanoma

Abstract

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have gained considerable attention as therapeutic targets. Monoclonal antibody treatments directed against tumor antigens contribute significantly to cancer cell clearance by activating macrophages to phagocytose tumor cells. Due to its complicated genetic and molecular pathways, skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) has not yet attained the expected clinical efficacy and prognosis when compared to other skin cancers. Therefore, we chose TAMs as an entrance point. This study aimed to thoroughly assess the dysregulation and regulatory role of phagocytosis regulators in SKCM, as well as to understand their regulatory patterns in SKCM. This study subtyped prognosis-related phagocytosis regulators to investigate prognostic differences between subtypes. Then, we screened prognostic factors and constructed phagocytosis-related scoring models for survival prediction using differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between subtypes. Additionally, we investigated alternative treatment options using chemotherapeutic drug response data and clinical cohort treatment data. We first characterized and generalized phagocytosis regulators in SKCM and extensively examined the tumor immune cell infiltration. We created two phagocytosis regulator-related system (PRRS) phenotypes and derived PRRS scores using a principal component analysis (PCA) technique. We discovered that subtypes with low PRRS scores had a poor prognosis and decreased immune checkpoint-associated gene expression levels. We observed significant therapeutic and clinical improvements in patients with higher PRRS scores. Our findings imply that the PRRS scoring system can be employed as an independent and robust prognostic biomarker, serving as a critical reference point for developing novel immunotherapeutic methods.