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Updated: Nov 27, 2025

The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays RPPA to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Construction of a Novel Multigene Panel Potently Predicting Poor Prognosis in Patients with Clear Cell Renal Cell
Xiaozeng Lin1,2,3, Anil Kapoor2,3,4, Yan Gu1,2,3
1Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
Abstract:
We observed associations of IQGAP1 downregulation with poor overall survival (OS) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs, n = 611) were derived from ccRCCs with (n = 111) and without IQGAP1 (n = 397) reduction using the TCGA PanCancer Atlas ccRCC dataset. These DEGs exhibit downregulations of immune response and upregulations of DNA damage repair pathways. Through randomization of the TCGA dataset into a training and testing subpopulation, a 9-gene panel (SigIQGAP1NW) was derived; it predicts poor OS in training, testing, and the full population at a hazard ratio (HR) 2.718, p < 2 × 10-16, p = 1.08 × 10-5, and p < 2 × 10-16, respectively. SigIQGAP1NW independently associates with poor OS (HR 1.80, p = 2.85 × 10-6) after adjusting for a set of clinical features, and it discriminates ccRCC mortality at time-dependent AUC values of 70% at 13.8 months, 69%/31M, 69%/49M, and 75.3%/71M. All nine component genes of SigIQGAP1NW are novel to ccRCC. The inclusion of RECQL4 (a DNA helicase) in SigIQGAP1NW agrees with IQGAP1 DEGs enhancing DNA repair. THSD7A affects kidney function; its presence in SigIQGAP1NW is consistent with our observed THSD7A downregulation in ccRCC (n = 523) compared to non-tumor kidney tissues (n = 100). Collectively, we report a novel multigene panel that robustly predicts poor OS in ccRCC.

