NLRP3
inflammasome was introduced as a double-edged sword in
tumorigenesis and influenced
immunotherapy response by modulating host immunity. However, a systematic assessment of the NLRP3-inflammasome-related genes across human
cancers is lacking, and the predictive role of NLRP3
inflammasome in
cancer immunotherapy (
CIT) response remains unexplored. Thus, in this study, we performed a pan-
cancer analysis of NLRP3-inflammasome-related genes across 24 human
cancers. Out of these 24
cancers, 15
cancers had significantly different expression of NLRP3-inflammasome-related genes between normal and
tumor samples. Meanwhile, Cox regression analysis showed that the NLRP3
inflammasome score could be served as an independent prognostic factor in skin cutaneous
melanoma. Further analysis indicated that NLRP3
inflammasome may influence
tumor immunity mainly by mediating tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and macrophages, and the effect of NLRP3
inflammasome on immunity is diverse across
tumor types in tumor microenvironment. We also found that the NLRP3
inflammasome score could be a stronger predictor for immune signatures compared with
tumor mutation burden (TMB) and glycolytic activity, which have been reported as immune predictors. Furthermore, analysis of the association between NLRP3
inflammasome and
CIT response using six
CIT response datasets revealed the predictive value of NLRP3
inflammasome for
immunotherapy response of patients in diverse
cancers. Our study illustrates the characterization of NLRP3
inflammasome in multiple
cancer types and highlights its potential value as a predictive
biomarker of
CIT response, which can pave the way for further investigation of the prognostic and therapeutic potentials of NLRP3
inflammasome.