乳腺癌（BC）是全球女性最常见的恶性肿瘤，迫切需要更有效的生物标志物来预防和治疗 BC。我们的研究旨在调查 HOXC 基因家族 (HOXC) 的作用及其与 BC 免疫反应的关系。利用生物信息学分析探讨BC中HOXCs的差异表达及其临床预后意义，并利用cBioPortal数据库评估BC中HOXCs的基因突变谱。结果表明，与正常组织相比，HOXC4、10、11、12、13在BC组织中表达量显着升高，且这些基因的表达量与BC分期密切相关，其中HOXC10高表达HOXC13 预测 BC 患者预后不佳。此外，为了阐明HOXCs在BC的肿瘤微环境和免疫治疗反应中的重要作用，全面评估了HOXCs对BC免疫浸润调节的影响。结果显示，HOXC10和HOXC13表达与CD8 T细胞和M1巨噬细胞的浸润水平显着正相关，而与肥大细胞和自然杀伤细胞呈负相关，提示HOXCs对调节BC患者肿瘤免疫具有重要影响。最后，采用 RT-qPCR 检测来验证 BC 患者样本中 HOXC 的表达。总之，HOXC 可能是一种有前途的预后指标，并且可以调节 BC 患者的免疫浸润，从而成为 BC 的一种有前景的靶向免疫疗法。© 2024。作者获得 Springer Science Business Media, LLC 的独家许可，部分施普林格自然。

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide, and more effective biomarkers are urgently needed for the prevention and treatment of BC. Our study aimed to investigate the role of the HOXC gene family (HOXCs) and its relationship with the immune response in BC. The differential expression of HOXCs and its clinical prognostic significance in BC were explored using bioinformatics analysis, and the cBioPortal database was used to evaluate the genetic mutation profile of the HOXCs in BC. The results indicated that the expression levels of HOXC4, 10, 11, 12, and 13 were significantly increased in BC tissues compared with the normal tissues, and expressions of these genes were closely associated with BC stage, among them, high expression levels of HOXC10 and HOXC13 predicted poor outcome in BC patients. In addition, to elucidate the essential role of HOXCs in the tumor microenvironment and immunotherapeutic response of BC, the impact of HOXCs on the regulation of immune infiltration in BC was comprehensively assessed. The result showed that HOXC10 and HOXC13 expressions were significantly positively linked with the infiltration levels of CD8+T cell and M1 macrophage, while they were negatively related to Mast and Natural killer cells, suggesting the important influence of HOXCs on regulating tumor immunity in BC patients. Lastly, the RT-qPCR assay was employed to validate HOXCs expression in samples of BC patients. In conclusion, HOXCs may be a promising prognostic indicator and could regulate the immune infiltration in BC patients, thus being a promising targeted immunotherapy for BC.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.