ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common type of cancer. We performed the present study to explore the function and specific regulatory mechanism of m6A in OSCC and to find a new diagnosis and treatment strategy for OSCC. METHODS: Using bioinformatics, we examined the associations between 20 genes associated with methylation and the epidemiological data about OSCC tumor samples. RESULTS: We created two subgroup curves based on the gene expression levels related to m6A methylation. In total, 14 genes were found to be differentially expressed. Significant differences in terms of survival rates, Grade and gender were found among subgroups with different m6A expression levels. Nine genes had areas under the curves greater than 0.7. Therefore, these genes may be utilized for the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of OSCC. Because of their high individual predictive value, HNRNPC and IGF2BP2 were chosen as the two potential predictors. The two regulatory elements were used to create the prognostic signals for OSCC. The developed prognostic signals made it possible to discern between the samples with good and poor prognoses without potential confounding factors. Four genes (HNRNPC, METTL14, YTHDF2 and ALKBH5) combined well with compounds, which had an anti-cancer effect. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that OSCC-related genes with m6A methylation could be beneficial treatment targets or prognostic indicators.
