Four transcription profile–based models identify novel prognostic signatures in oesophageal cancer

Abstract

Oesophageal cancer (ESCA) is a clinically challenging disease with poor prognosis and health‐related quality of life. Here, we investigated the transcriptome of ESCA to identify high risk‐related signatures. A total of 159 ESCA patients of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were sorted by three phases. In the discovery phase, differentially expressed transcripts were filtered; in the training phase, two adjusted Cox regressions and two machine leaning models were used to construct and estimate signatures; and in the validation phase, prognostic signatures were validated in the testing dataset and the independent external cohort. We constructed two signatures from three types of RNA markers by Akaike information criterion (AIC) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regressions, respectively, and all candidate markers were further estimated by Random Forest (RFS) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms. Both signatures had good predictive performances in the independent external oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cohort and performed better than common clinicopathological indicators in the TCGA dataset. Machine learning algorithms predicted prognosis with high specificities and measured the importance of markers to verify the risk weightings. Furthermore, the cell function and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining assays identified that the common risky marker FABP3 is a novel oncogene in ESCA.

Fatty acids in cancer: Metabolic functions and potential treatment

“…41 In addition, FABP3 has been found to promote the malignant progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells. 42 Meanwhile, FABP5 is highly expressed in HCC and is associated with tumor proliferation. 44 Moreover, inhibitors of FABP5 can reduce the phosphorylation level of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) and promote the apoptosis of prostate cancer cells.…”

“…Mechanistically, FABP1 activates the Akt/mTOR pathway by phosphorylating vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐2 (VEGFR2) to upregulate VEGF‐A and promotes tumor angiogenesis 41 . In addition, FABP3 has been found to promote the malignant progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells 42 . Meanwhile, FABP5 is highly expressed in HCC and is associated with tumor proliferation 44 .…”

Glutamine Deprivation Synergizes the Anticancer Effects of Cold Atmospheric Plasma on Esophageal Cancer Cells

“…Esophageal cancer is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. The current mainstream treatments for esophageal cancer include esophagectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, multimodal therapy and recently, immunotherapy [ 4 ].…”

Identification of FABP7 as a Potential Biomarker for Predicting Prognosis and Antiangiogenic Drug Efficacy of Glioma

“…FABPs can act as prognostic markers for survival in patients with various types of tumors. For example, FABP2 is highly expressed in gastric cancer [13], whereas high FABP3 expression has been associated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [14,15] and esophageal cancer [16,17]. FABP4 is an important predictor of poor prognosis in patients with stomach adenocarcinoma [18], colorectal cancer [19], and cervical cancer [20], whereas FABP5 is an independent prognostic factor in patients with uveal melanoma [21].…”