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Fig. 3 | Molecular Cancer

Fig. 3

From: Unraveling tumour microenvironment heterogeneity in nasopharyngeal carcinoma identifies biologically distinct immune subtypes predicting prognosis and immunotherapy responses

Fig. 3

Verification of the immune subtypes in validation cohort 2 (ICI). a Heatmap representation of the tumour response and expression of immune-related signatures in A-IS, E-IS, and non-IS in 32 NPC patients receiving anti-PD-1 antibody combined with chemotherapy from validation cohort 2 (ICI). Tumour response was assessed after three cycles of ICI plus chemotherapy. In the heatmap, high and low ssGSEA scores are represented in red and blue, respectively. The presence and molecular characteristics of the immune subtypes were successfully validated. b Change in plasma EBV DNA levels in A-IS, E-IS, and non-IS during the treatment course in the 32 patients with ICI plus chemotherapy treatment. c Waterfall plot showing changes from baseline in the sum of longest target lesion diameters for each of the 32 patients with ICI plus chemotherapy treatment. PR was defined as a ≥30% decrease from baseline in the sum of diameters. d Box plots showing changes from baseline in the sum of longest target lesion diameters in A-IS, E-IS, and non-IS for the 32 patients receiving ICI plus chemotherapy (left) and the 32 matched patients receiving chemotherapy alone (right). The box plot centre corresponds to the median, with the box and whiskers corresponding to the interquartile range and 1.5× interquartile range, respectively. P-values were based on the Kruskal–Wallis rank-sum test. A significant P-value in the interaction test between ICI treatment (ICI plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone) and the immune subtypes on tumour shrinkage was identified (P = 0.045). A-IS, active immune subtype; CAF, cancer-associated fibroblast; Chemo, chemotherapy; CR, complete response; ECM, extracellular matrix; E-IS, evaded immune subtype; ICI, immune checkpoint inhibitor; MDSC, myeloid-derived suppressor cell; non-IS, non-immune subtype; PR, partial response; SD, stable disease; ssGSEA, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis; TAM, tumour-associated macrophage

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