Pan-cancer analysis identifies SPEN mutation as a predictive biomarker with the efficacy of immunotherapy

• Published in: BMC cancer Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 1 - 793
• Main Authors: Li, Ya-Dong, Huang, Hao, Ren, Zheng-Ju, Yuan, Ye, Wu, Hao, Liu, Chuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 24.08.2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Bioinformatics; Biomarkers; Cancer; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; Development and progression; Gene mutations; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genomics; Health aspects; Immune checkpoint inhibitor; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immunohistochemistry; Immunotherapy; Ipilimumab; Lung cancer; Lymphoma; Medical prognosis; Microsatellite instability; Monoclonal antibodies; Mutation; Oncology, Experimental; Patient outcomes; Prognosis; Protein expression; Proteins; Regression analysis; RNA processing; Sex differences; SPEN; Statistical analysis; Survival analysis; Tumorigenesis; Tumors; Women; X chromosome inactivation; China
• ISSN: 1471-2407; 1471-2407
• DOI: 10.1186/s12885-023-11235-0

The association between specific genetic mutations and immunotherapy benefits has been widely known, while such studies in pan-cancer are still limited. SPEN, mainly involved in X chromosome inactivation (XCI), plays an essential in tumorigenesis and sex differences in cancer. Thus, we firstly analyzed the potential role of SPEN in the TCGA pan-cancer cohort and clinical samples. Bioinformatics analysis and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining confirm that the expression of SPEN is significantly different in various cancers and may involve RNA splicing and processing via enrichment analysis. Then, our data further revealed that those patients with SPEN mutation could predict a better prognosis in pan-cancer and had distinct immune signatures, higher tumor mutation burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) in common cancer types. Finally, the cancer patients from 9 studies treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors were included to investigate the efficacy of immunotherapy. The results further showed that SPEN mutation was associated with better clinical outcomes (HR, 0.74; 95%CI, 0.59-0.93, P = 0.01), and this association remained existed in female patients (HR, 0.60; 95%CI, 0.38-0.94 P = 0.024), but not in male patients (HR, 0.82; 95%CI, 0.62-1.08 P = 0.150). Our findings demonstrated that SPEN mutation might strongly predict immunotherapy efficacy in pan-cancer. Keywords: SPEN, X chromosome inactivation, Immune checkpoint inhibitor, Immunotherapy, Prognosis