Identification of Immune-Related Prognostic Biomarkers Associated with HPV-Positive Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Figure 4

Weighted IRDEGs of the HNSCC expression network. (a) The scale-free fit index for soft-thresholding powers. The soft-thresholding power in the WGCNA was determined based on the scale-free (). The left panel presents the relationship between the soft threshold and the scale-free . The right panel presents the relationship between the soft threshold and mean connectivity. (b) A dendrogram of the differentially expressed genes clustered based on different metrics. Each branch in the figure represents one gene, and the color below it represents one expression module. (c) Heatmap showing the correlation between the gene module and clinical traits. The turquoise module contained 596 IRGs, while the blue module contained 186 IRGs. The correlation coefficient in each cell represents the correlation between gene module and clinical traits, which decrease in magnitude from red to blue. The turquoise module showed the highest positive correlation with survival, while the blue module showed the highest negative correlation with survival. (d) Distribution of average GS and errors in the modules associated with the overall survival of HNSCC patients. Based on the average linkage hierarchical clustering and the soft-thresholding power, six modules were identified. To determine the significance of each module, GS was calculated to measure the correlations between genes and sample traits. GS was defined as the log₁₀ conversion of the value in the linear regression between gene expression and clinical data (). The turquoise and blue modules showed high correlations with the survival of HNSCC patients.

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