Using Single-Cell RNA Sequencing and MicroRNA Targeting Data to Improve Colorectal Cancer Survival Prediction

Colorectal cancer has proven to be difficult to treat as it is the second leading cause of cancer death for both men and women worldwide. Recent work has shown the importance of microRNA (miRNA) in the progression and metastasis of colorectal cancer. Here, we develop a metric based on miRNA-gene target interactions, previously validated to be associated with colorectal cancer. We use this metric with a regularized Cox model to produce a small set of top-performing genes related to colon cancer. We show that using the miRNA metric and a Cox model led to a meaningful improvement in colon cancer survival prediction and correct patient risk stratification. We show that our approach outperforms existing methods and that the top genes identified by our process are implicated in NOTCH3 signaling and general metabolism pathways, which are essential to colon cancer progression.