Construction of a prognostic model with CAFs for predicting the prognosis and immunotherapeutic response of lung squamous cell carcinoma
Open accessAbstract
Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is one of the subtypes of lung cancer (LC) that contributes to approximately 25%–30% of its prevalence. Cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are key cellular components of the TME, and the large number of CAFs in tumour tissues creates a favourable environment for tumour development. However, the function of CAFs in the LUSC is complex and uncertain. First, we processed the scRNA‐seq data and classified distinct types of CAFs. We also identified prognostic CAFRGs using univariate Cox analysis and conducted survival analysis. Additionally, we assessed immune cell infiltration in CAF clusters using ssGSEA. We developed a model with a significant prognostic correlation and verified the prognostic model. Furthermore, we explored the immune landscape of LUSC and further investigated the correlation between malignant features and LUSC. We identified CAFs and classified them into three categories: iCAFs, mCAFs and apCAFs. The survival analysis showed a significant correlation between apCAFs and iCAFs and LUSC patient prognosis. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients in CAF cluster C showed a better survival probability compared to clusters A and B. In addition, we identified nine significant prognostic CAFRGs (CLDN1, TMX4, ALPL, PTX3, BHLHE40, TNFRSF12A, VKORC1, CST3 and ADD3) and subsequently employed multivariate Cox analysis to develop a signature and validate the model. Lastly, the correlation between CAFRG and malignant features indicates the potential role of CAFRG in promoting tumour angiogenesis, EMT and cell cycle alterations. We constructed a CAF prognostic signature for identifying potential prognostic CAFRGs and predicting the prognosis and immunotherapeutic response for LUSC. Our study may provide a more accurate prognostic assessment and immunotherapy targeting strategies for LUSC.
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In lung squamous cell carcinoma, elevated expression of the CST3 gene in tumor-associated fibroblasts is associated with reduced responsiveness to immunotherapy and worse clinical outcomes.
“In lung squamous cell carcinoma, elevated expression of the CST3 gene in tumor-associated fibroblasts, an alternative source of cystatin C, is also associated with reduced responsiveness to immunotherapy and worse clinical outcomes39.”
From Oligomeric cystatin C supports the immunosuppressive activity of myeloid cells through interaction with inhibitory receptors (2025) · cites this paper as [39]
The Results (Construction and validation of prognostic model; no page given) report CST3 overexpression in LUSC tumour tissue, and the Discussion identifies CST3 as one of nine genes in a prognostic CAF-related signature. The Results (Exploration of the immune landscape; no page given) associate immunotherapy responsiveness with the composite risk groups, not with CST3 expression in tumour-associated fibroblasts specifically. The paper therefore does not establish that elevated fibroblast CST3 itself predicts reduced responsiveness or worse outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Hafemeister, C., & Satija, R. (2019) · Genome Biology · doi:10.1186/s13059-019-1874-1 · Cited by 4,479 · cited 1× · see citing works
“27,28 Subsequent to the foregoing, we identified fibroblasts and pro - ceeded to undertake a similar analysis as before.”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Zhang, C., He, Y., Liu, X., Xie, J., Fang, M., Yang, X., Huang, R., Lou, Q., Li, B., Gupta, A., et al. (2025) · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy · doi:10.1038/s41392-025-02462-x · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Zhang, X., Xiao, Q., Zhang, C., Zhou, Q., & Xu, T.
- Affiliations
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Chengdu Medical College (CN)
- Southwest Medical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Tao
- Venue
- Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2024-03-23
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e18262-e18262
- ISSN
- 1582-1838 (ISSN-L)
- 1582-4934
- PMC
- PMC10960179
- OpenAlex
- W4393115521
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 2.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Lung Cancer Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
- Keywords
- lung squamous cell carcinoma, cancer-associated fibroblasts, prognostic signature, immunotherapy response prediction, tumor microenvironment, CAF subtypes, immune cell infiltration, prognostic gene signature, tumor angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cell cycle alterations
- MeSH terms
- Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, Adducins, Calmodulin-Binding Proteins, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Carcinoma, Squamous Cell, Humans, Immunotherapy, Lung, Lung Neoplasms, Prognosis, Vitamin K Epoxide Reductases
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