Identification of the six-hormone secretion-related gene signature as a prognostic biomarker for colon adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a globally prevalent cancer, with hormone secretion playing a crucial role in its progression. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the impact of hormone secretion on COAD prognosis. This study aimed to establish a prognostic signature based on hormone secretion-related genes and to elucidate the potential functional mechanisms of these genes in COAD. METHODS: Using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas COAD cohort (TCGA-COAD), six hormone secretion-related genes were identified (CYP19A1, FOXD1, GRP, INHBB, SPP1, and UCN). These genes were used to develop a Hormone secretion score (HSS), which was then evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier curve and multivariable Cox analysis. The HSS model was further validated with external GEO cohorts (GSE41258, GSE39582, and GSE87211). Functional enrichment analyses were performed, and the CIBERSORT and TIDE algorithms were used to assess tumor infiltration. RESULTS: The study developed a prognostic signature, dividing patients into HSS-high and HSS-low groups. The HSS-high group showed a notably worse prognosis within the TCGA-COAD dataset and in three independent datasets: GSE41258, GSE39582, and GSE87211. Moreover, the HSS-high group predicted a shorter overall survival rate in patients maintaining microsatellite stability (MSS). The functional analysis associated HSS-high with the hypoxic, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and TGF-beta signaling pathways and correlated with distant and lymph node metastases. The tumor immune microenvironment analysis revealed an elevated CIBERSORT score in the HSS-high group, suggesting an association with tumor metastasis. Further, the HSS-high group showed a higher TIDE score, indicating that patients with high HSS scores are less likely to benefit from Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI) therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the prognostic significance of a HSS signature based on six hormone secretion-related genes in COAD. The findings suggest that this gene signature may serve as a reliable biomarker for predicting survival outcomes in COAD patients.