AUTHOR=Dong Yinlei , Tian Junjie , Yan Bingqian , Lv Kun , Li Ji , Fu Deliang 

TITLE=Liver-Metastasis-Related Genes are Potential Biomarkers for Predicting the Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

JOURNAL=Pathology and Oncology Research

VOLUME=Volume 27 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.por-journal.com/journals/pathology-and-oncology-research/articles/10.3389/pore.2021.1609822

DOI=10.3389/pore.2021.1609822

ISSN=1532-2807

ABSTRACT=It is widely acknowledged that metastasis determines the prognosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD), and liver is the most primary distant metastatic location of PAAD. It is worth exploring the value of liver-metastasis-related genetic prognostic signature (LM-PS) in predicting the clinical outcomes of PAAD patients post R0 resection. We collected tumor and normal pancreatic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression project (GTEx), respectively. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between tumor and normal pancreatic samples were intersected with DEGs between PAAD tissues with liver metastasis and those without new tumor event. The intersected genes were input into univariate Cox regression analysis to identify the prognostic genes. Thirty-three prognostic liver-metastasis-related genes were identified and included into the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis to develop a 7-gene LM-PS. PAAD patients were grouped into low- and high-risk groups based to the median value of risk scores. The LM-PS harbored an independent predictive ability to distinguish patients with high-risk of death and liver metastasis after R0 resection. Moreover, a robust prognostic nomogram based on LM-PS, the number of positive lymphnodes and histologic grade was established to predict the overall survival of PAAD patients. Besides, a transcription factor (TF)‐microRNA coregulatory network was constructed for the 7 LM-PS genes, and the immune infiltration and genomic alterations were systematically explored in the TGCA-PAAD cohort.