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Table 2 Summary of prognostic gene clusters

From: Loss of p53-DREAM-mediated repression of cell cycle genes as a driver of lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer

Prognostic gene cluster

Prognostic association

N genes

Overrepresented functions/biological themesa

Primary cell (sub)type with highest expression

Association with grade

S1

Anti-survival

240

PRC1 targets, EMT, hypoxia

Ubiquitous (malignant & stroma-skewed)

N/S

S2

Anti-survival

196

MTORC1 signaling, ribosome biogenesis, protein misfolding response

Ubiquitous (malignant-skewed)

N/S

S3

Pro-survival

140

None

Ubiquitous (endothelial & malignant-skewed)

 + 

S4

Anti-survival

139

EMT, extracellular matrix, TGFB signaling

Fibroblasts

 + 

S5

Pro-survival

120

Antigen receptor-mediated antitumor immunity

T/NK cells

 + 

S6

Pro-survival

123

Epithelial differentiation (overlap with cluster L2)

Well-differentiated malignant cells

-

L1

Anti-LNM

162

Epithelial differentiation

Well-differentiated malignant cell cluster

-

L2

Anti-LNM

209

Epithelial differentiation

Well-differentiated malignant cells

-

L3

Anti-LNM

15

Intracellular transport, RNA splicing

Ubiquitous (malignant-skewed)

-

L4

Pro-LNM

196

Cell cycle genes, p53-DREAM targets, DNA replication/repair

G2/M phase/stem-like malignant cells

 + 

L5

Pro-LNM

146

Regulation of various immune processes, KRAS and IL2-STAT5 signaling

Ubiquitous across non-malignant cell types

 + 

L6

Pro-LNM

14

RNA splicing

Ubiquitous (malignant-skewed)

 + 

  1. aIdentified by gene set overlap analysis (GSOA), detailed in Additional file 2: Table S6