Screening of immunosuppressive cells from colorectal adenocarcinoma and identification of prognostic markers.

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common type of gastrointestinal malignant tumour. Colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD)-the most common type of CRC-is particularly dangerous. The role of the immune system in the development of tumour-associated inflammation and cancer has received increasing attention recently. METHODS In this study, we compiled the expression profiles of 262 patients with complete follow-up data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database as an experimental group and selected 65 samples from the GEO dataset (of which 46 samples with M0) as a verification group. First, we screened the immune Th17 cells related to the prognosis of COAD. Subsequently, we identified Th17-cells-related hub genes by utilizing co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and LASSO regression analysis. Six genes associated with the prognosis in patients with COAD were identified ,including : KRT23, ULBP2, ASRGL1, SERPINA1, SCIN, and SLC28A2. We constructed a clinical prediction model and analysed its predictive power. RESULTS The identified hub genes are involved in developing many diseases and closely linked to digestive disorders. Our results suggested that the hub genes could influence the prognosis of COAD by regulating Th17 cells' infiltration. CONCLUSIONS These newly discovered hub genes contribute to clarifying the mechanisms of COAD development and metastasis. Given that they promote COAD development, they may become new therapeutic targets and biomarkers of COAD.