SAMD13 serves as a useful prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of liver cancer and the 5-year relative overall survival (OS) rate is less than 20%. Since there are no specifc symptoms, most patients with HCC are diagnosed in an advanced stage with poor prognosis. Therefore, identifying novel prognostic biomarkers to improve the survival of patients with HCC is urgently needed. In the present study, we attempted to identify SAMD13 (Sterile Alpha Motif DomainContaining Protein 13) as a novel biomarker associated with the prognosis of HCC using various bioinformatics tools. SAMD13 was found to be highly expressed pan-cancer; however, the SAMD13 expression was signifcantly correlated with the worst prognosis in HCC. Clinicopathological analysis revealed that SAMD13 upregulation was signifcantly associated with advanced HCC stage and high-grade tumor type. Simultaneously, high SAMD13 expression resulted in association with various immune markers in the immune cell subsets by TIMER databases and efcacy of immunotherapy. Methylation analysis showed SAMD13 was remarkably associated with prognosis. Furthermore, a six-hub gene signature associated with poor prognosis was correlated with the cell cycle, transcription, and epigenetic regulation and this analysis may support the connection between SAMD13 expression and drug-resistance. Our study illustrated the characteristics of SAMD13 role in patients with HCC using various bioinformatics tools and highlights its potential role as a therapeutic target and promising biomarker for prognosis in HCC.