A novel 9-gene classifier for predicting distant metastasis of soft-tissue sarcoma and multiple malignancies

Distant metastasis of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a risk factor with a significant impact on patient prognosis. Therefore, accurate prediction of STS metastatic risk is important in the therapeutic management of STS patients. In this study, we investigated gene expression profile of STS samples in public databases to comprehensively search for genes involved in distant metastasis. We then developed a 9-gene classifier that divided STS patients into four clusters with different metastatic risk. Interestingly, this classifier could also predict the metastatic risk of breast cancer, kidney clear cell carcinoma, and uveal melanoma. A comparison of AUC scores showed that the robustness of the 9-gene classifier was superior to many other existing prognostic gene signatures. In summary, the 9-gene classifier might provide useful prognostic information for the therapeutic management of STS and multiple other malignancies.