Identification of Protein Phosphatase 1 Regulatory Subunit 3 as a Prognostic Biomarker in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Abstract Background: The study aimed to determine: (1) The potential application of the protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 3 (PPP1R3B) gene as a prognostic marker in gastric cancer (GC) and (2) The possible role of PPP1R3B in biological processes and pathways.Methods: The complete RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data and other relevant clinical and survival information was acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The univariate survival analysis with Cox regression model and Kaplan‐Meier analysis was used to investigate the association between clinical pathologic features and PPP1R3B gene expression. A genome-wide gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was also conducted to define the underlying molecular mechanism of the PPP1R3B gene in GC development.Results: The Log rank test and Cox regression identified the prognostic application of PPP1R3B expression in GC patients. Comprehensive survival analysis suggested that PPP1R3B might be an independent predictive factor for the survival time in patients with GC. The prognostic relationship between PPP1R3B and GC was also verified by the Kaplan–Meier plotter (KM plotter). Patients with a high expression of PPP1R3B were associated with a shorter clinical survival time. Additionally, GSEA demonstrated that PPP1R3B might be involved in multiple biological processes and pathways.Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that the PPP1R3B gene could be used as a potential molecular marker for GC prognosis.