A prognostic model for oral squamous cell carcinoma using 7 genes related to tumor mutational burden

BACKGROUND: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a rising problem in global public health. The traditional physical and imageological examinations are invasive and radioactive. There is a need for less harmful new biomarkers. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) is a novel prognostic biomarker for various cancers. We intended to explore the relationship between TMB-related genes and the prognosis of OSCC and to construct a prognostic model. METHODS: TMB-related differential expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by differential analysis and optimized via the univariate Cox and LASSO Cox analyses. Risk Score model was constructed by expression values of screened genes multiplying coefficient of LASSO Cox. RESULTS: Seven TMB-related DEGs (CTSG, COL6A5, GRIA3, CCL21, ZNF662, TDRD5 and GSDMB) were screened. Patients in high-risk group (Risk Score > − 0.684511507) had worse prognosis compared to the low-risk group (Risk Score < − 0.684511507). Survival rates of patients in the high-risk group were lower in the gender, age and degrees of differentiation subgroups compared to the low-risk group. CONCLUSIONS: The Risk Score model constructed by 7 TMB-related genes may be a reliable biomarker for predicting the prognosis of OSCC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-022-02193-3.