Abstract
Collagen is the main component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and might play an important role in tumor microenvironments. However, the relationship between collagen and clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) is still not fully clarified. Hence, we aimed to establish a collagen-related signature to predict the prognosis and estimate the tumor immune microenvironment in ccRCC patients. Patients with a high risk score were often correlated with unfavorable overall survival (OS) and an immunosuppressive microenvironment. In addition, the collagen-related genetic signature was highly correlated with clinical pathological features and can be considered as an independent prognostic factor in ccRCC patients. Moreover, GSEA results show that patients with a high risk grade tend to be associated with epithelial–mesenchymal junctions (EMT) and immune responses. In this study, we developed a collagen-related gene signature, which might possess the potential to predict the prognosis and immune microenvironment of ccRCC patients and function as an independent prognostic factor in ccRCC.
Highlights
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common kidney malignant tumor, accounting for about 2% to 3% of adult malignant tumors
Clinical and pathological information of 537 clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) patients and 72 normal tissue samples were obtained from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA, https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/, accessed on 2 July 2021) database
All variables were observed with no significant difference between the training cohort and the test cohort, indicating that the two samples had a high degree of consistency
Summary
Renal cell carcinoma is the most common kidney malignant tumor, accounting for about 2% to 3% of adult malignant tumors. Due to the widespread use of imaging technology, the early diagnosis rate of renal clear cell carcinoma has increased significantly. Surgical resection is the main treatment for early localized clear cell renal carcinoma, but even with radical or partial nephrectomy, local or distant metastases still occur in 16% of patients [4]. For advanced metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, because patients are not sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the main treatment is targeted therapy and immunotherapy. 30% of patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma have primary drug resistance toward molecularly targeted drugs and some patients will develop secondary drug resistance about 1 year after receiving treatment, which leads to a poor prognosis of patients [5]. It is of great significance to explore the molecular mechanisms related to the progression of renal clear cell carcinoma for improving the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with renal clear cell carcinoma
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