Tumor Mutation Burden and Immune Invasion Characteristics in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Genome High-Throughput Data Analysis

Abstract

In recent years, the emergence of immunotherapy has provided a new perspective for the treatment and management of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the relationship between tumor mutation burden (TMB) and immune infiltration and the prognosis of TNBC remains unclear. In this study, to explore the immunogenicity of TNBC, we divided patients with TNBC into high and low TMB groups based on the somatic mutation data of TNBC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and screened out genes with mutation rate ≥10. Then, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that the 5-year survival rate of the high TMB group was much higher than that of the low TMB group and the two groups also showed differences in immune cell infiltration. Further exploration found that the FAT3 gene, which displays significant difference and a higher mutation rate between the two groups, is not only significantly related to the prognosis of TNBC patients but also exhibits difference in immune cell infiltration between the wild group and the mutant group of the FAT3 gene. The results of gene set enrichment analysis and drug sensitivity analysis further support the importance of the FAT3 gene in TNBC. This study reveals the characteristics of TMB and immune cell infiltration in triple-negative breast cancer and their relationship with prognosis, to provide new biomarkers and potential treatment options for the future treatment of TNBC. The FAT3 gene, as a risk predictor gene of TNBC, is considered a potential biological target and may provide new insight for the treatment of TNBC.