最近，人们开始考虑使用免疫基因特征（IGSs）作为多种癌症类型的新型预后工具的可能性。基因组学、转录组学和蛋白质分析的最先进方法使得我们能够鉴定出与疾病结果相关的多个免疫特征。主要的适应性和先天性免疫组分分别是T淋巴细胞和巨噬细胞。在这里，我们收集了关于由T细胞和肿瘤相关巨噬细胞子群组成并指示癌症患者结果的IGSs的基本数据。我们讨论了可能引入免疫细胞类型识别错误的因素，并解释了为什么免疫特征的意义可以以不确定性进行解释。由先天性和适应性免疫细胞组合构建的符合从单向细胞功能的特征应该被完全解决。抗肿瘤免疫反应的状态是IGSs的关键基础，并应在基因签名构建中加以考虑。我们还分析了免疫特征对免疫疗法反应的预测。最后，我们试图解释使用免疫特征作为强有力的预后标准目前存在的局限性。© 作者（们），2023。

Recently, the possibility of using immune gene signatures (IGSs) has been considered as a novel prognostic tool for numerous cancer types. State-of-the-art methods of genomic, transcriptomic, and protein analysis have allowed the identification of a number of immune signatures correlated to disease outcome. The major adaptive and innate immune components are the T lymphocytes and macrophages, respectively. Herein, we collected essential data on IGSs consisting of subsets of T cells and tumor-associated macrophages and indicating cancer patient outcomes. We discuss factors that can introduce errors in the recognition of immune cell types and explain why the significance of immune signatures can be interpreted with uncertainty. The unidirectional functions of cell types should be entirely addressed in the signatures constructed by the combination of innate and adaptive immune cells. The state of the antitumor immune response is the key basis for IGSs and should be considered in gene signature construction. We also analyzed immune signatures for the prediction of immunotherapy response. Finally, we attempted to explain the present-day limitations in the use of immune signatures as robust criteria for prognosis.© The Author(s), 2023.