ISSN: 1837-9664Journal of Cancer
Global reach, higher impact
J Cancer 2020; 11(8):2139-2149. doi:10.7150/jca.38796 This issue Cite
Research Paper
A Combined four-mRNA Signature Associated with Lymphatic Metastasis for Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer
1. Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang City, 110122, Liaoning, China.
2. Liaoning Engineering Technology Research Center, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang City, 110122, Liaoning, China.
*Xueping Li and Qiang Zhang have contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is a common mode of metastasis of CRC. However, the combined mRNA biomarkers associated with LNM of CRC that can effectively predict CRC prognosis have not been reported yet.
Methods: To identify biomarkers that are associated with LNM, we collected data from the The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The edgeR package was searched to seek LNM-related genes by comparisons between cancer samples and normal colorectal tissues and between LNM and non-LNM (NLNM) of CRC. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis of genes in the intersection to build gene signature associated with independent prognosis of CRC, and then verified by Kaplan-Meier curve and log-rank test, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the efficiency of survival prediction of our four-mRNA signature. Finally, the potential molecular mechanisms and properties of these gene signature were also explored with functional and pathway enrichment analysis.
Results: 329 mRNAs were up-regulated in CRC tissues with LNM, and 8461 mRNAs were up-regulated in CRC tissues, the intersection is 100 mRNAs. After univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of 100 mRNAs, a novel four LNM related mRNAs (EPHA8, KRT85, GABRA3, and CLPSL1) were screened as independent prognostic indicators of CRC. Surprisingly, the four-mRNA signature can predict the prognosis of CRC patients independently of clinical factors andthe area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC is 0.730. The novel four-mRNA signature was used to identify high and low-risk groups. Stratified analysis indicated the risk score based on four-mRNA signature was an independent prognostic indicator for female, T3+T4, N1+N2 ,stage III+IV and patients with no new tumor event. Functional annotation of this risk model in high-risk patients revealed that pathways associated with neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, estrogen signaling pathway, and steroid hormone biosynthesis.
Conclusions: By conducting TCGA data mining, our study demonstrated that a four-mRNA signature associated with LNM can be used as a combined biomarker for independent prognosis of CRC.
Keywords: biomarker, lymph node metastasis, colorectal cancer, mRNA, prognosis
Citation styles
