Translational Cancer Research

BACKGROUND: The incidence of stage pN3b gastric cancer (GC) is low, and the clinical prognosis is poor, with a high rate of postoperative recurrence. Machine learning (ML) methods can predict the recurrence of GC after surgery. However, the prognostic significance for pN3b remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to predict the recurrence of pN3b through ML models. METHODS: This retrospective study included 336 patients with pN3b GC who underwent radical surgery. A 3-fold cross-validation was used to partition the participants into training and test cohorts...

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an invasive malignant tumor, and pyroptosis makes an important contribution to the pathology and progression of liver cancer. Many prognostic models have been proposed for HCC based on the quantitative expression level of candidate genes, which are unsuitable for clinical application due to their vulnerability against experimental batch effects. The aim of this study was to develop a novel pyroptosis-related long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-based prognostic index (PLPI) for HCC based on relative expression orderings (REOs)...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer type and is the principal cause of cancer-related death in women. Anti-programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immunotherapy has shown promising effects in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), but the potential factors affecting its efficacy have not been elucidated. Immune-related long noncoding RNAs (irlncRNAs) have been reported to be involved in immune escape to influence the carcinogenic process through the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway...

BACKGROUND: Chromatin regulators (CRs) are implicated in the development of cancer, but a comprehensive investigation of their role in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is inadequate. The purpose of this study is to find CRs that can provide recommendations for clinical diagnosis and treatment, and to explore the reasons why they serve as critical CRs. METHODS: We obtained data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) screened tumor-associated CRs...

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer (EC) is an epithelial malignancy occurring in the endometrium, with a 5-year mortality rate of above 10%. However, there is currently a lack of studies exploring the potential of a predictive model of tumor-specific death after surgery in these patients. METHODS: From January 2015 to December 2017, data related to 482 patients with EC admitted to the Dushu Lake Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University were analyzed. Patients were divided into death (n=62) and survival (n=420) groups according to whether tumor-specific death occurred at 5 years postoperatively or not...

BACKGROUND: The occurrence rate of primary ocular adnexal lymphoma (POAL) is relatively low, and estimation of prognosis of these patients poses significant challenges. This study aims to investigate the independent prognostic factors of POAL patients and establish a predictive model to provide clinical data for the formulation of standardized treatment plans. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis by extracting data of POAL patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2017 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database...

BACKGROUND: Conjunctival melanoma (CM) is a rare, invasive tumor in the eye that readily metastasizes and spreads. Based on some significant clinicopathological information, we aimed to develop a prognostic model to predict the overall survival (OS) of CM patients. METHODS: Data of patients diagnosed with CM from 2000 to 2019 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Significant prognostic factors were extracted and integrated based on competing risk regression to build a nomogram...

BACKGROUND: Kelch-like family member 22 ( KLHL22 ) is a protein-coding gene that is responsible for several Mendelian diseases and has been reported to promote tumorigenesis and aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate its expression in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and its prognostic significance. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to examine the expression levels of KLHL22 in 146 patients with TNBC. The Chi-squared test was used to analyze the correlations between KLHL22 expression level and clinicopathological features, and the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox multivariate regression model were used to analyze the prognostic significance of KLHL22 in patients with TNBC...

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver cancer with high mortality worldwide. Even though the patients with HCC received standard therapies, patients with HCC continue to experience unsatisfactory therapy outcomes. Presently, immune therapy acts as a novel therapeutic management for HCC. The aim of this study was to determine overexpressed genes in HCC and evaluate the association between overexpressed genes with the prognosis and immune infiltration. METHODS: Gene expression profiles of HCC were analyzed using multiple online databases, and then confirmed by qualitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunohistochemical analysis...

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reported a role of protein phosphatase 4 regulatory subunit 1 ( PPP4R1 ) in cancer development. However, its expression, diagnostic significance, prognostic value and biological function in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) are not known. METHODS: The expression level of PPP4R1 in pan-cancer was evaluated by analyzing publicly accessible data from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) Xena database. The diagnostic value of PPP4R1 for tumors was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, whereas the impact of PPP4R1 on tumor prognosis was determined using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and a prognostic model for LIHC was established using cox regression analysis...

BACKGROUND: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a heterogeneous tumor that accounts for a large proportion of kidney cancer, It is prone to recurrence and metastasis, and has a high mortality rate. Although mitophagy is important for metastasis and the recurrence of various tumors, its effect on renal clear cell carcinoma is poorly understood. METHODS: Mitophagy-related genes were obtained through the GeneCards database. We normalised the data from different sources by removing the batch effect...

BACKGROUND: Timely diagnosis is the key factor to improve the prognosis of endometrial carcinoma (EC). To date, no particularly good markers could significantly improve the detection rate of EC. This study aimed to assess the utility of serum markers homocysteine (Hcy), human epididymal protein 4 (HE4), cancer antigen 199 (CA199), cancer antigen 125 (CA125), fibrinogen (Fib), and D-dimer (D-D) for EC diagnosis, especially Hcy of which its role in EC has not been noticed. METHODS: Pre-test and verification tests were performed...

BACKGROUND: Due to the implementation of individualized treatment, the majority of gastric cancer patients have a favorable prognosis, but advanced gastric cancer with recurrence and distant metastasis still plagues some patients. As a member of the FK506-binding protein (FKBP65) family, there is growing evidence that FKBP10 plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis. However, the role of FKBP10 in the tumor microenvironment (TME) has been a prominent issue. METHODS: The FKBP10 knockdown efficiency in gastric cancer cells was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)...

BACKGROUND: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is a prevalent form of liver cancer in pediatric patients, characterized by an embryonal malignant tumor. In the current study, a clinical prediction model was developed; that can effectively assess the likelihood of a patient's survival with HB. METHODS: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database for cases of HB between 2010 and 2019 were used in this retrospective research. Information on clinicopathologic characteristics, therapeutic interventions, and survival outcomes were included in the data...

BACKGROUND: Solute carrier family 31 (copper transporter), member 1 ( SLC31A1 ) is a key factor in maintaining intracellular copper concentration and an important factor affecting cancer energy metabolism. Therefore, exploring the potential biological function and value of SLC31A1 could provide a new direction for the targeted therapy of tumors. METHODS: This study assessed gene expression levels, survival, clinicopathology, gene mutations, methylation levels, the tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), and the immune cell infiltration of SLC31A1 in pan-cancer using the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource 2...

BACKGROUND: Wilms' tumor 1 associated protein (WTAP) is an essential component of the m6A methyltransferase complex. The research on WTAP has been continuously developed and promoted in recent years. It is needed to make systematic specific bibliometric and database analyses on WTAP, to identify the cooperation and impact of authors, countries, institutions and journals, to evaluate the knowledge base and find the hotspot trends, and to detect the emerging topics regarding WTAP research...

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a common cause of death around the world. Immunotherapy plays a significant role in cancer treatment but still has limitations. The ankyrin-3 ( ANK3 ) gene has been shown to have a variety of biological roles and has also been shown to be closely linked to individual cancers. METHODS: We systematically investigated the role of ANK3 in pan-cancer, particularly in relation to immunity. We collected data from a number of databases, including the The University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer data analysis Portal (UALCAN), tumor-immune system interactions (TISIDB), cBioPortal, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING), BioGRID, and SangerBox databases...

BACKGROUND: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most prevalent malignant cancer worldwide. The cysteine X cysteine (CXC) chemokine family contains 17 members, which are reportedly crucial for the growth, invasion, metastasis, and microenvironment of tumor cells. Although the precise functions of CXC ligands (CXCLs) in HNSCC are unclear, these proteins may play important roles in controlling tumor growth and forming the tumor immune environment. METHODS: We downloaded the RNA sequencing and matched clinicopathological data of 379 patients with HNSCC as the training set from The Cancer Genome Atlas and two datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus for use as validation sets...

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a rare subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis. Despite its rarity, it is important to gain a better understanding of the epidemiological, clinical, and prognostic features of pulmonary LCNEC. The purpose of this study was to design, construct, and validate a new nomogram for predicting overall survival (OS) in patients with pulmonary LCNEC. METHODS: In total, the data of 1,864 LCNEC patients were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, which is maintained by the National Cancer Institute in the United States and serves as a comprehensive source of cancer-related information...

BACKGROUND: Ras-related protein Rab-4B (RAB4B), a small GTPase in the RAS superfamily, is involved in glucose homeostasis, synaptic homeostasis, adaptive immunity, and other processes. RAB4B has also been implicated in tumorigenesis, and its dysregulation has been linked to cancer in multiple organs. However, the potential role of RAB4B in human pan-cancers remains unknown, and whether RAB4B is a predictive biomarker for cancer immunotherapy is yet to be explored. METHODS: In order to investigate the potential for RAB4B as a therapeutic agent in human pan-cancers and its predictive properties, firstly, relevant data were downloaded from pan-cancers databases...