Work

A Novel and Robust Prognostic Model for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Based on Enhancer RNAs-Regulated Genes

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Background: Evidence demonstrated that enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) play a vital role in the progression and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but few studies have focused on the prognostic ability of eRNA-regulated genes. Methods: The gene expression profiles of HCC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) and GSE14520 in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were collected to develop and validate a prognostic signature composed of eRNA-regulated genes based on Lasso-penalized Cox regression. Findings: A novel prognostic signature composed of 10 eRNA-regulated genes including SSRP1, SSB, IGFBP4, SUOX, RDH16, G6PC, AKR1C3, NUP205, ADAMTS5, and RRAGD was identified, and HCC patients were stratified into high and low risk group using median risk score. The signature is an independent prognostic factor for prognosis and was combined with age and TNM stage to construct a nomogram. Kaplan-Meier curves, time-ROC curves, calibration curves, and decision curves indicated that patients in the high risk group had poorer prognosis both in training set and validation set, and there were significant differences in immune landscape, Sorafenib sensitivity, and pathways between the two groups. Interpretation: We constructed a novel signature and nomogram based on eRNA-regulated genes for accurately and robustly predicting overall survival of HCC patients to facilitate individualized treatment and improving their prognosis. Funding: This work was supported by the National Major Project of Science and Technology of China (2016ZX08011005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82073666), and the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (82003556). Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Source: Frontiers in Oncology

DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.849242