Establishing a prognostic model with immune-related genes and investigating EPHB6 expression pattern in breast cancer

In breast cancer, the behavior of genes linked to the immune system and their interaction with the tumor's microenvironment suggest new paths for tailored therapies. Utilizing the TCGA-BRCA cohort, we established a robust overall survival prediction model through LASSO regression and Gaussian mixture model based on risk group. We found that low-risk patients responded better to chemotherapy. Single-cell analysis further confirmed expression patterns of signature genes in both healthy and malignant breast samples. Our study, the first to use immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess EPHB6 expression in benign and malignant breast samples, revealed higher EPHB6 levels in benign tissue and triple-negative cancer. In axillary lymph nodes, EPHB6 was predominantly expressed in stroma cells, with diminished expression in cancerous cells upon infiltration. These insights highlight the significance of immune-related genes in breast cancer.