Six-gene signature for predicting survival in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

• DOI: 10.18632/aging.102655
• Publication Date: 2020-01-12T21:30:00Z
• Authors: Juncheng Wang; Xun Chen; Yuxi Tian; Gangcai Zhu; Yuexiang Qin; Xuan Chen; Leiming Pi; Ming Wei; Guancheng Liu; Zhexuan Li; Changhan Chen; Yunxia Lv; Gengming Cai
• Keywords: Male; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; Gene Expression Profiling; Computational Biology; Genetic Variation; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Prognosis; 3. Good health; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; ROC Curve; Biomarkers, Tumor; Humans; Female; Transcriptome; Research Paper; Proportional Hazards Models

The prognosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients remains poor. High-throughput sequencing data have laid a solid foundation for identifying genes related to cancer prognosis, but a gene marker is needed to predict clinical outcomes in HNSCC. In our study, we downloaded RNA Seq, single nucleotide polymorphism, copy number variation, and clinical follow-up data from TCGA. The samples were randomly divided into training and test. In the training set, we screened genes and used random forests for feature selection. Gene-related prognostic models were established and validated in a test set and GEO verification set. Six genes (PEX11A, NLRP2, SERPINE1, UPK, CTTN, D2HGDH) were ultimately obtained through random forest feature selection. Cox regression analysis confirmed the 6-gene signature is an independent prognostic factor in HNSCC patients. This signature effectively stratified samples in the training, test, and external verification sets (P < 0.01). The 5-year survival AUC in the training and verification sets was greater than 0.74. Thus, we have constructed a 6-gene signature as a new prognostic marker for predicting survival of HNSCC patients.