Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2023; 11(27): 6383-6397
Published online Sep 26, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i27.6383
Prognostic model of hepatocellular carcinoma based on cancer grade
Guo-Xin Zhang, Xiao-Sheng Ding, You-Li Wang
Guo-Xin Zhang, You-Li Wang, Department of General Surgery, Aviation General Hospital, Beijing 100010, China
Xiao-Sheng Ding, Department of Oncology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
Author contributions: Zhang GX contributed to research design, data collection, interpretation, and analysis, and manuscript drafting; Ding XS contributed to data analysis and interpretation; Wang YL contributed to result interpretation and critical revision of the manuscript; all authors approved the final version and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Institutional review board statement: All data in this article are sourced from databases such as TCGA, KEGG, GO, etc., and do not involve humans or animals, nor ethical issues.
Informed consent statement: The study does not involve humans or animals, nor ethical issues and informed consent statement.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to the manuscript. If any potential conflict of interest exists, the authors certify that it is fully disclosed.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: You-Li Wang, DSc, FRCS (Gen Surg), MD, Chief Physician, Instructor, Staff Physician, Surgeon, Department of General Surgery, Aviation General Hospital, No. 3 Anwai Beiyuan Courtyard, Anli Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100010, China. stage9999@sina.com
Received: June 22, 2023
Peer-review started: June 22, 2023
First decision: July 17, 2023
Revised: August 2, 2023
Accepted: August 23, 2023
Article in press: August 23, 2023
Published online: September 26, 2023
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer. With highly invasive biological characteristics and a lack of obvious clinical manifestations, HCC usually has a poor prognosis and ranks fourth in cancer mortality. The aetiology and exact molecular mechanism of primary HCC are still unclear.

Research motivation

To explore genomic characteristics between different grades of HCC.

Research objectives

To select the characteristic genes that are significantly associated with the prognosis of HCC patients and construct a prognosis model of this malignancy.

Research methods

By comparing gene expression levels of patients with different cancer grades of HCC, we screened out differentially expressed genes associated with tumour grade. By PPI network analysis, we obtained the top 2 protein-protein interaction networks and hub genes from these differentially expressed genes. By using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression, 13 prognostic genes were selected for feature extraction, and a prognostic risk model of HCC was established.

Research results

The model had significant prognostic ability in HCC. We also analysed the biological functions of these prognostic genes. These prognostic genes and the prognostic model based on these genes can be used in clinical practice.

Research conclusions

By comparing the gene profiles of patients with different stages of HCC, we have constructed a prognostic model based on 13 genes. This model has good application value and can be explained clinically.

Research perspectives

The component genes of the prognostic model are expected to be candidate targets for liver cancer treatment in future clinical therapy.