Abstract
Background: Although immunotherapy with immune checkpoint therapy has been used to treat head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), response rates and treatment sensitivity remain limited. Recent studies have indicated that transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) may be an important target for novel cancer immunotherapies. Materials and methods: We collected genomic profile data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method and Cox regression were used to establish a prognostic model. Gene set enrichment analysis was applied to explore biological functions. Tracking of indels by decomposition and subclass mapping algorithms were adopted to evaluate immunotherapy efficiency. Result: We established a seven TGF-β pathway-associated gene signature with good prediction efficiency. The high-risk score subgroup mainly showed enrichment in tumor-associated signaling such as hypoxia and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathways; This subgroup was also associated with tumor progression. The low-risk score subgroup was more sensitive to immunotherapy and the high-risk score subgroup to cisplatin, erlotinib, paclitaxel, and crizotinib. Conclusion: The TGF-β pathway signature gene model provides a novel perspective for evaluating effectiveness pre-immunotherapy and may guide further studies of precision immuno-oncology.