Autophagy-related signature as Indicators for the Prognosis of Hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common and deadly type of liver cancer. Autophagy is the process of transporting damaged or aging cellular components into lysosomes for digestion and degradation. There is an accumulative evidence implies that autophagy is a key factor of the progression of cancer. The aim of this study was to determine a panel of a novel autophagy-related prognostic marker for liver cancer. Methods We conducted a comprehensive analysis of ARGs expression profiles and corresponding clinical information based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. The univariate Cox proportional regression model was used to screen candidate autophagy-related prognostic genes. In addition, the multivariate Cox proportional regression model were helped to prove five key prognostic autophagy-related genes (ATIC, BAX, BIRC5, CAPNS1 and FKBP1A), which were used to construct prognostic signature. Results Based on the prognostic signature, liver cancer patients were significantly divided into high-risk and low-risk groups in terms of overall survival (OS). Further multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the prognostic signature remained as an independent prognostic factor for OS. The prognostic signature in possession of a better Area Under Curves (AUC) has a better performance in predicting the survival of patients with HCC, compared with other clinical parameters. Conclusion This study provides a prospective biomarker for monitoring the outcomes in the patients with HCC.