Ferritin light chain as a potential biomarker for the prognosis of liver hepatocellular carcinoma
Aoqun Li,
Yue Li,
Xiaoqing Li,
Chunxiao Tang,
Yang Yang,
Nan Li,
Yun Jin
Affiliations
Aoqun Li
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Key Laboratory of Tumor Pathobiology (Yanbian University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Yanji, 133000, China
Yue Li
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Key Laboratory of Tumor Pathobiology (Yanbian University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Yanji, 133000, China
Xiaoqing Li
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Key Laboratory of Tumor Pathobiology (Yanbian University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Yanji, 133000, China
Chunxiao Tang
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Key Laboratory of Tumor Pathobiology (Yanbian University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Yanji, 133000, China
Yang Yang
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Key Laboratory of Tumor Pathobiology (Yanbian University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Yanji, 133000, China
Nan Li
Institute of Virology, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325000, China
Yun Jin
Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Department of Ultrasound, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China; Corresponding author. Central Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Yanbian University, Yanji, 133000, China.
High expression of the ferritin light chain (FTL) in cancer promotes its onset and progression and is associated with tumour evolution. However, the significance of FTL in pan-cancer progression and prognosis in humans remains unclear. Therefore, we selected various bioinformatics databases to perform a pan-cancer analysis on a public dataset. Our results showed that FTL was differentially expressed in pan-cancer tissues compared to normal tissues. High FTL expression significantly correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC). The subsequent validation experiments confirmed these observations. Notably, our study found for the first time that FTLs are closely associated with LIHC and that FTLs have important clinical diagnostic and prognostic value for patients with LIHC. We confirmed that FTL expression was closely associated with altered DNA cycles and immune infiltration in LIHC. In conclusion, high levels of FTL expression are associated with poor prognosis in LIHC patients and are expected to be a potential prognostic and immune marker for LIHC.
