Clinical prognosis and related molecular features of hepatitis B-associated adolescent and young adult hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Inattention has been given to the pathogenesis of adolescent and young adult (AYA) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Due to the more advanced tumor progression and poorer prognosis of AYA-HCC, together with a better tolerance ability, noncirrhotic background, and a stronger willingness to treat AYA-HCC, clinical and molecular biology studies are urgent and necessary, especially for those with hepatitis B infection. METHODS: For clinical aspects, the overall survival, the recurrence-free survival, and the Cox analyses were performed. Then, functional analysis, gene clustering, metabolic-related analysis, immune infiltration and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) construction were carried out using whole transcriptome sequencing technique. RESULTS: Based on the clinical information of our HCC cohort, the overall survival and recurrence-free survival rates were worse in the AYA group than in the elderly group as previously described. According to our whole transcriptome sequencing results, functional analysis revealed that metabolism-related pathways as well as protein translation and endoplasmic reticulum processing were enriched. Then the hub metabolism-related genes were screened by metabolite–protein interactions (MPIs) and protein–protein interactions (PPIs). Fatty acid metabolism is a crucial component of metabolic pathways, abnormalities of which may be the reason for the worse prognosis of HBV-AYA HCC. Finally, the relationship of disrupted expression of metabolism-related genes with immune infiltration was also analyzed, and the lncRNA‒miRNA‒mRNA-related ceRNA network for HBV-AYA HCC was constructed, which may provide new cues for HBV-AHA HCC prevention. CONCLUSION: The worse prognosis and recurrence rate of HBV-AYA HCC may be related to abnormalities in metabolism-related pathways, especially disorders of fatty acid metabolism. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40246-023-00500-9.