Abstract
Skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is a chronically malignant tumor with a high mortality rate. Pyroptosis, a kind of pro-inflammatory programmed cell death, has been linked to cancer in recent studies. However, the value of pyroptosis in the diagnosis and prognosis of SKCM is not clear. In this study, it was discovered that 20 pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) differed in expression between SKCM and normal tissues, which were related to diagnosis and prognosis. Firstly, based on these genes, nine machine-learning algorithms were shown to perform well in constructing diagnostic classifiers, including K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), logistic regression, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), decision tree, random forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost. Secondly, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis was applied and the prognostic model was constructed based on 9 PRGs. Subgroups in low and high risks determined by the prognostic model were shown to have different survival. Thirdly, functional enrichment analyses were performed by applying the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and results suggested that the risk was related to immune response. In conclusion, the expression signatures of pyroptosis-related genes are effective and robust in the diagnosis and prognosis of SKCM, which is related to immunity.
Highlights
Malignant skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is a serious life-threatening disease, and the incidence rate of SKCM is rapidly increasing throughout the world [1, 2]
The results suggested that CASP1, CASP3, gasdermin D (GSDMD), NLRP3, PYCARD, AIM2, and NLRC4 play central roles in the pyroptosis process of SKCM
We proposed that the effects of pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) on predicting the prognosis of SKCM could be related to the immune microenvironment
Summary
Malignant skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is a serious life-threatening disease, and the incidence rate of SKCM is rapidly increasing throughout the world [1, 2]. SKCM lacks specific treatment other than early surgical resection, which leads to a poor prognosis and extremely high mortality [3]. Non-Caucasian populations are less likely to develop melanoma, the severity of SKCM in Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America has increased [4]. Lack of prevention and early diagnosis programs may contribute to the increased prevalence of SKCM in these regions [5]. Developing efficient diagnosis and prognosis methods is important for the treatment of SKCM.
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