A Cytokine-Related Gene Signature for Pan-Cancer Prognostic Stratification and Malignant Phenotype Characterization.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Immunology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Cytokines are key regulators of inflammation and immune responses in the tumor microenvironment.
• Their role in cancer progression and prognosis is significant, but coordinated transcriptional programs remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically explore the prognostic value of cytokine-related transcriptional programs across diverse cancer types.
• To develop and validate a robust cytokine-related prognostic signature for pan-cancer risk stratification.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of pan-cancer transcriptomic and clinical data.
• Construction of a cytokine-related prognostic signature using LASSO Cox regression.
• Stratification of patients into high-risk and low-risk groups and evaluation of prognostic performance.

Main Results:

• A 16-gene signature effectively stratified patients into distinct prognostic groups across multiple cancer types.
• High-risk scores correlated with unfavorable survival, enhanced cell cycle activity, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and extracellular matrix remodeling.
• Integration with clinical variables improved survival prediction; protein expression of key genes (PANX1, FRMD8) was elevated in tumors.

Conclusions:

• The cytokine-related prognostic signature captures critical inflammatory and immune programs associated with tumor aggressiveness.
• This signature offers a valuable tool for pan-cancer risk stratification with potential clinical utility.