Screening of autophagy genes as prognostic indicators for glioma patients

Although autophagy is reported to be involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression, its correlation with the prognosis of glioma patients remains unclear. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify prognostic autophagy-related genes, analyze their correlation with clinicopathological features of glioma, and further construct a prognostic model for glioma patients. After 139 autophagy-related genes were obtained from the GeneCards database, their expression data in glioma patients were extracted from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database. Univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses were performed to identify prognostic autophagy-related genes. Ten hub autophagy-related genes associated with prognosis were identified. The autophagy risk score (ARS) was only positively correlated with histopathology (P = 0.000) and World Health Organization grade (P = 0.000). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the overall survival of patients with a high ARS was significantly worse than that of patients with a low ARS (hazard ratio = 1.59, 95% confidence interval = 1.25-2.03, P = 0.0001). In addition, Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses revealed several common biological processes and signaling pathways related to the 10 hub genes in glioblastoma. A prediction model was developed for glioma patients, which demonstrated high prediction efficiency on calibration. Moreover, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values for 1-, 3- and 5-year survival probabilities were 0.790, 0.861, and 0.853, respectively. In conclusion, we identified 10 autophagy-related genes that can serve as novel prognostic biomarkers for glioma patients. Our prediction model accurately predicted patient outcomes, and thus, may be a valuable tool in clinical practice.