Expression and clinical significance of CCDC34 in hepatocellular carcinoma: An analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas database / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the expression and clinical value of coiled-coil domain-containing protein 34 (CCDC34) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to predict the role of CCDC34 in the development and progression of HCC. MethodsThe datasets of HCC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to obtain the expression profile and clinical information of the CCDC34 gene. The bioinformatics method was used to analyze the expression of CCDC34 in HCC, its correlation with clinicopathological parameters, and its influence on prognosis. The gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to predict the possible pathways regulated by the CCDC34 gene in HCC. The independent samples t-test and the paired t-test were used for comparison of continuous data between two groups; the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test were used for survival analysis; the Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis was used to investigate the influencing factors for prognosis. P＜0.01 was the standard for judging significant enrichment in GSEA, and the false discovery rate was ＜0.05. ResultsIn TCGA database, CCDC34 was highly expressed in tumor tissue, and there was a significant difference in the expression of CCDC34 between patients with different TNM stages and tumor grades (t=2.118 and 3.622, P=0.035 and P＜0.001). The patients with high expression of CCDC34 had a significantly shorter overall survival time than those with low expression (χ2=21.716, P＜005). The multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the expression of CCDC34 （HR＝2.287,95%CI1.312-3.987）and TNM stage(HR=1.943,95%CI1.101-3.429) were independent risk factors for the overall survival time of patients with HCC (all P＜0.05). The enrichment of 8 pathway gene sets, including base excision repair and spliceosome, was observed in the samples with high expression of CCDC34 (P＜0.01, FDR ＜0.05). ConclusionCCDC34 may play a vital role in the development and progression of HCC and thus become a new prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target.