Molecular Subtypes Based on PANoptosis Genes and Characteristics of Immune Infiltration in Cutaneous Melanoma

Cutaneous melanoma (CM) remains the most life-threatening form of skin cancer. Further risk stratification and search for new prognostic targets for CM are of positive clinical significance. PANoptosis is defined as an inflammatory programmed cell death mediated by the PANoptosome complex and cannot be characterized by pyroptosis, apoptosis or necroptosis alone. Although PANoptosis is closely associated with many diseases including cancer, it has not been reported in CM. Combined with GTEx and TCGA database, we extracted 14 PANoptosis-related genes (PAGs). The molecular subtypes of CM were then analyzed by PAGs and their associations with the immune microenvironment and immunotherapy reactivity were analyzed. LASSO and univariate Cox analysis was performed on PAGs-related differentially expressed genes to establish PAGs characteristics that could effectively predict the prognosis of CM patients. Immune infiltration, tumor mutation burden analysis, immunotherapy response and drug sensitivity analysis were used to further analyze the causes of prognostic differences. Our study provides a new perspective on the role of PANoptosis in CM.