Comprehensive Analysis of Immune Implication and Prognostic Value of CCDC137 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most predominant pathological type of primary liver cancer and is a serious threat to people's lives and health worldwide. In this study, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to explore the immunological role of CCDC137 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its prognostic value, and a predictive model containing CCDC137-related immune modulators was developed using Cox regression analysis. Levels of CCDC137 were significantly higher in liver tissue of HCC patients than in normal tissue, and CCDC137 expression was also significantly correlated with pathological stage, tumor stage, and the expression of CCDC137 was also significantly correlated with pathological stage, tumor stage, and histological grade. The robustness of the predictive ability of the model was fully validated by plotting ROC curves and nomograms and by the external validation cohort of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Our model provides additional options for targeted, immune-based systemic therapy.