Correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor pathway and immune microenvironment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Immunotherapy is a crucial therapeutic approach in oncology. However, most patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) do not derive benefit from immunotherapy. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/VEGF Receptor 2 (VEGFR2) signaling pathway is one of the most important pathways regulating angiogenesis in tumor. The combination of immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic therapy is considered to improve efficacy of immunotherapy. The correlation between VEGF signaling pathway and tumor immune microenvironment in HNSCC patients is unclear.

Methods: We utilized RNA sequencing and clinical data of HNSCC patients from the TCGA database to study the correlation between VEGF signaling pathway and tumor immune microenvironment, on aspect of immune cell infiltration, immune-related gene expression profiling and immune-related biological pathways.

Results: We observed that VEGF signaling pathway is positively correlated with immune cell infiltration, immune-related gene expression profiles, and the prognosis of HNSCC patients. The functional enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes between different VEGF score subtypes detected multiple immune-related biological processes.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that combining anti-VEGF signaling pathway agents with immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) therapy, may exhibit encouraging benefits in HNSCC.