A Death-Related Gene Signature for Prognosis with Osteosarcoma

Abstract Purpose: Osteosarcoma is one of the most prevalent malignancies, and despite significant advances in its treatment, patient prognosis remains poor and survival rates are low. It is undoubtedly important to explore the possible reasons for the low survival rates of patients and to reveal the differences. Methods and Results: We obtained RNA-Seq (HT seq) and clinical characteristics of osteosarcoma patients from the TCGA database and divided them into survival group and death group. We defined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups as death-related genes (DRGs) and used them to construct a prognostic signature for overall survival of patients with osteosarcoma. The results of the validation demonstrated satisfactory accuracy and predictive prognostic value of the model. In addition, we performed a series of bioinformatic analyses that identified two key genes and the regulatory networks they constituted that may play a role in the progression of osteosarcoma. Conclusion: Our DRGs signature represents a novel and clinically useful prognostic biomarker for patients with osteosarcoma, helping to aid clinical decision-making.