The Novel-B-Cell-Related Gene Signature Predicts the Prognosis and Immune Status of Patients with Esophageal Carcinoma

The current understanding of the prognostic significance of B cells and their role in the tumor microenvironment (TME) in esophageal carcinoma (ESCA) is limited.

We conducted a screening for B-cell-related genes through the analysis of single-cell transcriptome data. Subsequently, we developed a B-cell-related gene signature (BRGrisk) using LASSO regression analysis. Patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort were divided into a training cohort and a test cohort. Patients were categorized into high- and low-risk groups based on their median BRGrisk scores. The overall survival was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and a nomogram based on BRGrisk was constructed. Immune infiltration profiles between the risk groups were also compared.

The BRGrisk prognostic model indicated significantly worse outcomes for patients with high BRGrisk scores (p < 0.001). The BRGrisk-based nomogram exhibited good prognostic performance. Analysis of immune infiltration revealed that patients in the high-BRGrisk group had notably higher levels of immune cell infiltration and were more likely to be in an immunoresponsive state. Enrichment analysis showed a strong correlation between the prognostic gene signature and cancer-related pathways. IC50 results indicated that patients in the low-BRGrisk group were more responsive to common drugs compared to those in the high-BRGrisk group.

This study presents a novel BRGrisk that can be used to stratify the prognosis of ESCA patients and may offer guidance for personalized treatment strategies aimed at improving prognosis.