Cancer Biomarkers - Volume 38, issue 4

Authors: Liu, Yang | Han, Yan-Song | Wang, Jin-Feng | Pang, Zhong-Qi | Wang, Jian-She | Zhang, Lu | He, Jia-Xin | Shen, Lin-Kun | Ji, Bo | Ding, Bei-Chen | Ren, Ming-Hua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The biological roles of immune-related genes (IRGs) in bladder cancer (BC) need to be further elucidated. OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the predictive value of IRGs for prognosis and immune escape in BC. METHODS: We comprehensively analyzed the transcriptomic and clinical information of 430 cases, including 19 normal and 411 BC patients from the TCGA database, and verified 165 BC cases in the GSE13507 dataset. The risk model was constructed based on IRGs by applying LASSO Cox regression and exploring the relationship between the risk score and prognosis, gene mutations, and immune escape in …BC patients. RESULTS: We identified 4 survival-related genes (PSMC1, RAC3, ROBO2 and ITGB3) among 6,196 IRGs in both the TCGA and GES13507 datasets,, which were used to establish a gene risk model by applying LASSO Cox regression. The results showed that the high-risk (HR) group was closely associated with poor survival or advanced pathological stage of BC. Furthermore, the risk score was found to be an independent risk factor for prognosis of BC patients. In addition, high-risk individuals showed a greater prevalence of TP53 mutations lower CD8+ T-cell and NK cell infiltration, higher Treg cell infiltration, higher expression of PD-L1, and higher immune exclusion scores than those in the low-risk (LR) group. Finally, the experimental verification shows that the model construction gene, especially PMSC1, plays an important role in the growth and metastasis of bladder cancer. CONCLUSIONS: These evidences revealed the vital role of IRGs in predicting prognosis, TP53 mutation and immune escape in BC patients. Show more

Keywords: Bladder cancer, prognosis, immune escape, risk model

DOI: 10.3233/CBM-230190

Citation: Cancer Biomarkers, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 567-581, 2023

Authors: Zheng, Tingting | Chen, Panpan | Xu, Yuanlin | Jia, Peijun | Li, Yan | Li, Yating | Cao, Jiaming | Li, Wanxin | Zhen, Yazhe | Zhang, Ying | Zhang, Shijie | Du, Jiangfeng | Zhang, Jingxin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Although there are many treatments for Multiple myeloma (MM), patients with MM still unable to escape the recurrence and aggravation of the disease. OBJECTIVE: We constructed a risk model based on genes closely associated with MM prognosis to predict its prognostic value. METHODS: Gene function enrichment and signal pathway enrichment analysis, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis were used to identify the prognostic gene signature for MM. Finally, the prognostic gene signature was …validated using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. RESULTS: Thirteen prognostic genes were screened by univariate Cox analysis and LASSO regression analysis. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed risk score to be an independent prognostic factor for patients with MM [Hazard Ratio (HR) = 2.564, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 2.223–2.958, P < 0.001]. The risk score had a high level of predictive value according to ROC analysis, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.744. CONCLUSIONS: The potential prognostic signature of thirteen genes were assessed and a risk model was constructed that significantly correlated with prognosis in MM patients. Show more

Keywords: Multiple myeloma, prognosis, risk model, bioinformatics analysis, database

DOI: 10.3233/CBM-230115

Citation: Cancer Biomarkers, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 583-593, 2023

Authors: Wang, Haofeng | Yu, Jinling | Shen, Weida | Zhao, Haiyan | Cui, Jing | Gao, Beimin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Axillary lymph node metastasis (LNM) affects the progression of breast cancer. However, it is difficult to preoperatively diagnose axillary lymph node status with high sensitivity. Therefore, we hypothesized that platelets/lymphocytes ratio (PLR) and lymphocytes/ red blood cells ratio (LRR) might help in the prognosis of lymph node metastasis in T1-T2 breast cancer. METHODS: 166 patients (Chang Ning Maternity & Infant Health Institute) were included in our study, and the associations of PLR and LPR with lymph node metastasis were investigated. Peripheral blood was collected one week before the surgery, and the patients were divided into …different categories based on their PLR and LRR. RESULTS: The incidence of LNM was significantly increased in the high PLR group (p = 0.002) compared with the low PLR group; LNM was also significantly increased in the low LRR group (p = 0.036) compared with the high LPR group. Further, our study revealed that high PLR (p < 0.001, OR = 4.397, 95% CI = 2.005–9.645), low LRR (p = 0.017, OR = 0.336, 95%CI = 0.136–0.825) and high clinical T stage (p < 0.001, OR = 3.929, 95%CI = 1.913–8.071) are independent predictors of LNM. CONCLUSIONS: PLR and LRR could be identified as predictors of LNM in patients with T1/T2 breast cancer. Show more

Keywords: Breast cancer, lymphocytes, platelet, red blood cell, biomarker

DOI: 10.3233/CBM-220260

Citation: Cancer Biomarkers, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 595-602, 2023

Authors: Chen, Zheng-Lin | Ma, Ying-Yu | Mou, Xiao-Zhou | Zhang, Jun-Gang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: MED subunits have been reported to be associated with various types of tumors, however, the potential role of MED7 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was still unclear. The aim of the study was to explore the role of MED7 in HCC. METHODS: In this study, MED7 mRNA expression levels between HCC and adjacent normal tissues were first analyzed by several public datasets. Then we utilized a tissue microarray (TMA) to investigate the clinical role of MED7 in HCC by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Meanwhile, the potential mechanisms of MED7 based on gene-gene correlation analyses were also …explored. RESULTS: High mRNA level of MED7 correlated with advanced stage and worse grade of differentiation. IHC results showed that MED7 protein level was upregulated in HCC and associated with Edmondson grade and Microvascular invasion in 330 cases of HCC. GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis revealed that MED7 co-expressed genes participate primarily in ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis, protein targeting, mRNA processing and nucleoside triphosphate metabolic process et cetera. Further analysis also revealed that MED7 mRNA level has significant correlation with immune cells infiltration levels. CONCLUSION: MED7 was upregulated in HCC and correlated with progression of HCC. Meanwhile, MED7 may promote HCC through participating in multiple gene networks to influence tumorigenesis as well as immune response in HCC microenvironment. Show more

Keywords: MED7, hepatocellular carcinoma, tumorigenesis, progression

DOI: 10.3233/CBM-220439

Citation: Cancer Biomarkers, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 603-611, 2023