Prognostic Hub Genes in the Immune Microenvironment of Lung Adenocarcinoma by Estimation

Background: The mortality of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is high. Recent studies have found that the degree of immune infiltration and stromal cells in the tumour microenvironment or tumours makes a significant contribution to prognosis. Methods: During the study, we screened differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the TCGA database for prognostic genes in the LUAD immune microenvironment. Furthermore, immune and stromal cells were quantified using the ESTIMATE algorithm. To study the effects of immune and stromal cell-associated genes on the prognosis of LUAD, LUAD patients were divided into high and low groups according to their immune/stromal scores. The obtained scores were found to be related to the phenotype and survival rate of LUAD patients. By selecting DEGs with high expression in immune and stromal cells, we performed functional enrichment analysis and found that most genes are associated with pathways of cancer, stimulus response and MAPK signaling. The functions and enriched pathways of LUAD prognostic genes were shown by a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Nonetheless, an external database was used to validate the prognostic genes from the TCGA. Results: Prognostic genes were listed according to their expression position and protein function. Conclusion: We provided new targets for immunotherapy of LUAD, which further provide basic knowledge for future clinical research.