TY - JOUR AU - Rong, Chao AU - Liu, Yun AU - Xiang, Fang AU - Zhao, Xin AU - Zhang, Jinjin AU - Xiao, Zuorun AU - Wang, Jinsha AU - Chen, Lin AU - Guo, Zhiqi AU - Zhang, Ziyu AU - An, Jingnan AU - Shen, Jing AU - Hess, Jochen AU - Yuan, Xiaodong AU - Zhang, Qiong AU - Wang, Shouli TI - Integrative bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation identify CHEK1 as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker related to immunosuppressive phenotypes in soft tissue sarcomas. JO - npj precision oncology VL - 9 IS - 1 SN - 2397-768X CY - [London] PB - Springer Nature M1 - DKFZ-2025-01610 SP - 268 PY - 2025 AB - Soft tissue sarcomas (STS), including rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), exhibit significant heterogeneity and limited responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Unsupervised tumor immune phenotype based on multi-omics expression profiling of STS has been less studied. To reveal the tumor immune phenotype of STS and identify promising therapeutic targets, multi-omics expression profiling across various subtypes of STS was investigated. Here, we established a novel molecular classifier based on immune cell subsets related to TGFβ1 and IFNγ to identify distinct immune phenotypes with higher or lower cytotoxic contents. Immune-high clusters demonstrated enriched immune cell infiltration, elevated IFNγ-related signatures, and favorable clinical outcomes. In contrast, immune-low clusters were enriched for immunosuppressive cell types and exhibited poor survival. CHEK1 emerged as a key node associated with immunosuppressive phenotypes and was significantly overexpressed in immune-low tumors. In situ analysis of independent validation cohorts revealed the significant correlation between CHEK1 and tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Collectively, our findings establish a novel risk assessment strategy for RMS and STS patients, and highlight the potential of CHEK1 as a promising therapeutic target in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:40751074 C2 - pmc:PMC12317078 DO - DOI:10.1038/s41698-025-01064-8 UR - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/303360 ER -