A Novel Signature Based on Pyroptosis-Related Genes for Predicting Breast Cancer
Abstract Background: Breast cancer (BC) surpassed lung cancer as the most frequent malignant tumour in women. In recent years, pyroptosis has revealed itself as an inflammatory form of programmed cell death. However, it is unclear as to the expression of genes associated with pyroptosis in BC and its relationship to prognosis. Results: In this study, we identified 31 pyroptosis regulators that are differentially expressed between BC and normal breast. The differently expressed genes (DEG) allow BC patients to be divided into three subtypes. Through single-factor and multi-factor COX regression and the application of least absolute contraction and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression method, the survival prognostic value of each gene related to pyroptosis in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort was evaluated, and a 4-gene signature was constructed. BC patients of the TCGA cohort are divided into low-risk or high-risk groups by risk score. The survival of the low-risk group was significantly higher than the high-risk group (P <0.001). Using the median risk score from the TCGA cohort, BC patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) cohort were divided into two risk sub-groups and similar conclusions were drawn. In combination with clinicopathological characteristics, the risk score is an independent predictive factor of OS in BC patients. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encylopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) indicated that the high-risk group's immune genes were enriched and immune status was reduced. Conclusions: In conclusion, pyroptosis-related genes are important for tumour immunity and can be used to predict the prognosis of BC.