A 4-gene signature predicts prognosis of uterine serous carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Uterine serous carcinoma (USC) is an aggressive type of endometrial cancer that accounts for up to 40% of endometrial cancer deaths, creating an urgent need for prognostic biomarkers. METHODS: USC RNA-Seq data and corresponding patients’ clinical records were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression datasets. Univariate cox, Lasso, and Multivariate cox regression analyses were conducted to forge a prognostic signature. Multivariable and univariable cox regression analysis and ROC curve evaluated the prediction efficiency both in the training and testing sets. RESULTS: We uncovered 1385 genes dysregulated in 110 cases of USC tissue relative to 113 cases of normal uterine tissue. Functional enrichment analysis of these genes revealed the involvement of various cancer-related pathways in USC. A novel 4-gene signature (KRT23, CXCL1, SOX9 and ABCA10) of USC prognosis was finally forged by serial regression analyses. Overall patient survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were significantly lower in the high-risk group relative to the low-risk group in both the training and testing sets. The area under the ROC curve of the 4-gene signature was highest among clinicopathological features in predicting OS and RFS. The 4-gene signature was found to be an independent prognostic indicator in USC and was a superior predictor of OS in early stage of USC. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the potential of the 4-gene signature as a guide for personalized USC treatment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-07834-4.