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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1551844
A novel tertiary lymphoid structure-associated signature accurately predicts patient prognosis and facilitates the selection of personalized treatment strategies for HNSCC
Provisionally accepted
Jinhao Zhang 1
Lu Zeng 2,3
Guobin Song 1
Gaoge Peng 4,5
Zhezheng Chen 3,6 Yamin Yuan 1
Taowu Chen 1 Tao Zhong 1 Shixi Chen 1 Zhengzhou Luo 3,6
Jingang Xiao 2,6,7*
Lin Liu 3,5,7*- 1 School of Stomatology, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 2 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The Affiliated Stomatological Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 3 Luzhou Key Laboratory of Oral & Maxillofacial Reconstruction and Regeneration, Luzhou, China
- 4 Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer in Shanghai, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 5 Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- 6 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The Affiliated Stomatological Hospital, Luzhou, China
- 7 School of Stomatology, Southwest Medical University, luzhou, China
Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the most common type of head and neck cancer and is characterized by its aggressive nature and variable prognosis and response to immunotherapy. Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) play crucial roles in creating a favourable immune microenvironment to control tumour progression. However, the specific impact of these structures on HNSCC has not been thoroughly studied.In this study, a comprehensive review of tertiary lymphoid structures was conducted by analysing 9 TLS-associated genes in a cohort of 871 HNSCC patients. Distinct TLS-related subgroups were identified through unsupervised clustering analysis, and the associated genes were explored. Prognostic genes were identified via univariate Cox and Boruta algorithms, and a novel TLS-related scoring system was developed via the GSVA algorithm.Results: Our study revealed that patients with higher TLS-related scores had improved overall survival and were more likely to benefit from immunotherapy. Furthermore, we observed a significant negative correlation between sensitivity to traditional chemotherapeutic agents and the TLS-related signature score.Our findings suggest that the TLS-related features of HNSCC patients hold promise as predictive indicators for immunotherapy efficacy and may offer novel insights for tailoring personalized treatment strategies in clinical practice.
Keywords: tertiary lymphatic structure, HNSCC, GSVA, tumour microenvironment, Immunotherapy, nomogram, Prognostic signature
Received: 02 Jan 2025; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Zeng, Song, Peng, Chen, Yuan, Chen, Zhong, Chen, Luo, Xiao and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jingang Xiao, School of Stomatology, Southwest Medical University, luzhou, China
Lin Liu, School of Stomatology, Southwest Medical University, luzhou, China
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