Expression patterns and prognostic value of m(6)A RNA methylation regulators in adrenocortical carcinoma

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is considered a rare cancer with poor prognosis. We used public datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases to assess the relationships between N6-methyladenosine (m(6)A)-related genes and ACC. We used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare m(6)A-related gene expression in ACC tissues with that in normal tissues. Then, ACC patients were grouped based on a cluster analysis of m(6)A-related gene expression. m(6)A-related genes that were significantly associated with survival were incorporated into a risk signature, and 2 groups were divided according to median risk score. Fisher exact tests were utilized to analyze differences in clinical variables between groups. We compared the overall survival (OS) rates of the groups by means of Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox regression analyses. We found that RBM15, ZC3H3, YTDHF1, YTDHF2, and ALBH5 were overexpressed in ACC and that KIAA1429, YTHDC1, HNRNPC, WTAP, METTL3, and FTO were down regulated in ACC. In addition, membership in cluster 2 or the high-risk group was associated with advanced clinical factors and poor prognosis. The univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses showed that risk score can be considered an independent prognostic factor for ACC. We found that the expression of m(6)A-related genes could be used as an independent prognostic factor in ACC. However, the current study has some limitations, and further studies of m(6)A-related genes in ACC are needed.