Molecular data show conserved DNA locations distinguishing lung cancer subtypes and regulation of immune genes.

Introduction: Non-small-cell lung cancer exhibits a range of transcriptional and epigenetic patterns that not only define distinct phenotypes, but may also govern immune related genes, which have a major impact on survival.

Methods: We used open-source RNA expression and DNA methylation data of the Cancer Genome Atlas with matched non-cancerous tissue to evaluate whether these pretreatment molecular patterns also influenced genes related to the immune system and overall survival.

Results: The distinction between lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are determined by 1083 conserved methylation loci and RNA expression of 203 genes which differ for >80 % of patients between the two subtypes.