Kainan Lin

Dr. Kainan Lin


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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2 December 2025 in Biomedicines
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
SMSibin Mei
Sibin Mei
BBBai Bai
Bai Bai
HWHuijuan Wang
Huijuan Wang
KLKainan Lin
Kainan Lin
TPTianyuan Pan
Tianyuan Pan
QCQian Cao
Qian Cao
Background/Objectives: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women, highlighting the urgent need for robust prognostic tools to enable individualized risk stratification. Methods: Transcriptomic data from 1075 breast cancer and 113 adjacent normal tissues in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were integrated with clinical information. Differential expression analysis identified 531 immune-related genes, which were further selected by univariate Cox regression and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression to construct a 13-gene prognostic signature. The model was validated in an independent cohort (n = 327). Tumor immune microenvironment and single-cell RNA sequencing data were analyzed to explore underlying biological differences. Results: The 13-gene signature effectively stratified patients into low- and high-risk groups with significantly different overall survival in both the TCGA cohort (log-rank p < 0.0001; C-index = 0.678; 5-year AUC = 0.72) and the validation cohort (log-rank p < 0.0001; C-index = 0.703; 3-year AUC = 0.81). Low-risk tumors exhibited an antitumor immune microenvironment enriched in CD8+ T cells, T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, and M1 macrophages, whereas high-risk tumors were dominated by immunosuppressive regulatory T cells and M2 macrophages (all p < 0.0001). Single-cell analysis revealed expansion of malignant epithelial cells and inflammatory cancer-associated fibroblasts (iCAFs) in high-risk tumors, with higher iCAF scores significantly associated with poorer survival (log-rank p = 0.00036). Conclusions: Collectively, this study delivers a rigorously validated 13-gene immune signature whose prognostic utility is rooted in distinct immune microenvironmental features, while unveiling iCAF-targeted therapeutic strategies as a promising intervention avenue.