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Updated: Oct 12, 2025

Author Spotlight: Investigating Immune Cell Dynamics in the Tumor Microenvironment — Challenges and Innovations in Cancer Prognosis
Published on: April 12, 2024
The role of complement in the clinical course of hepatocellular carcinoma
Xinye Qian1, Zhoujing Yang2, Lu Gao1
1Center of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Disease, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Background:
The complement system, an innate immune system, may either play an antitumor role, or promote tumorigenesis and cancer progression in different kinds of cancer. The function of complement in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear.
Methods:
The gene expressions of the complement system were based on data obtained from TCGA and GEO. We explored gene expressions, mutation, enrichment analysis, clinicopathology, patients' outcome, and immune infiltration via Gepia2, cBioPortal, Metascape, UALCAN, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and TIMER 2.
Results:
Five complement genes, including C1R, C6, C7, CFP, and CFHR3, were not only found to be significantly downregulated in HCC samples compared with normal liver samples, but also found to be significantly associated with overall survival, disease-free survival, and progress-free survival in HCC patients. In addition, lower mRNA expression of C1R, C6, C7, and CFHR3 were found correlated with advanced cancer stages and higher tumor grades in HCC patients. Also, the expression levels of CFP were correlated with many sets of immune markers of tumor immune cells, such as those of CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, B cells, M2 macrophages, neutrophils, DCs, Th1 cells, Th2 cells, and T cell exhaustion in HCC. Based on that, we developed a prognostic model for HCC patients-Riskscore = (-0.0053)*C6+(-0.0498)*C7+(-0.1045)*CFHR3.
Conclusion:
C1R, C6, C7, CFP, and CFHR3 could be prognostic biomarkers for patients with HCC.
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