Journal of hepatocellular carcinoma
A Hypoxia and EMT-Related Gene Signature for Predicting Prognosis and Immunotherapy Benefit in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
By Hu W, Gao D, Hou G and 4 others.
Abstract
Objective
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and hypoxia are key factors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis and recurrence. This study explored their combined impact on HCC prognosis and immunotherapy benefit.
Methods
TCGA, ICGC, and GEO (GSE14520) datasets were analyzed. An EMT-hypoxia prognostic model (EHPM) was built using LASSO, trained on TCGA (n = 365) and validated in ICGC (n = 231) and GSE14520 (n = 221). ROC curves assessed accuracy. ssGSEA and TIDE explored EHPM-tumor immune microenvironment relationships and predicted immunotherapy benefit. Nine EMT/hypoxia-related genes were validated by qRT-PCR in eight paired HCC and adjacent normal liver tissues.