Zhao Bin, Wang Shanshan, Xue Li, Wang Qingqing, Liu Yushan, Xu Qiang, Xue Qiu
Department of Pathology, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Nantong Fifth People's Hospital, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Nantong University, Jiangsu, 226361, China.
Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Suqian Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University and Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Group Suqian Hospital, Suqian, 223800, China.
Heliyon. 2023 Oct 14;9(10):e21062. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21062. eCollection 2023 Oct.
Gastric cancer (GC) ranks third in terms of mortality worldwide. The tumor microenvironment is critical for the progression of gastric cancer. This study investigated the association between EF-hand domain containing 1 (EFHD1) expression and its clinical significance in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of gastric cancer.
We used bioinformatic analyses to assess the relevance of EFHD1 mRNA in the TME of gastric carcinoma tissues and its relationship with clinical features. Therefore, we performed multiplex immunohistochemistry analyses to determine the potential role of the EFHD1 protein in the TME of gastric cancer.
EFHD1 expression increased dramatically in gastric cancer tissues compared to levels in non-cancerous tissue samples ( = 6.246, < 0.001). The EFHD1 protein presentation was associated with invasion depth (χ = 19.120, < 0.001) and TNM stages (χ = 14.468, = 0.002). Notably, EFHD1 protein expression was significantly related to CD66b + neutrophil infiltration of the intratumoral ( = 0.420, < 0.001) and stromal ( = 0.367, < 0.001) TME in gastric cancer. Additionally, Cox regression analysis revealed that EFHD1 was an independent prognostic predictor (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.262, < 0.001) in patients with gastric cancer.
Our study revealed the pattern of EFHD1 overexpression in the TME of patients with gastric cancer and demonstrated its utility as a biomarker for unfavorable clinical outcomes, thereby providing a potential immunotherapy target.
胃癌（GC）的死亡率在全球范围内排名第三。肿瘤微环境对胃癌的进展至关重要。本研究调查了含EF手结构域蛋白1（EFHD1）的表达及其在胃癌肿瘤微环境（TME）中的临床意义之间的关联。
我们使用生物信息学分析来评估EFHD1 mRNA在胃癌组织TME中的相关性及其与临床特征的关系。因此，我们进行了多重免疫组织化学分析，以确定EFHD1蛋白在胃癌TME中的潜在作用。
与非癌组织样本相比，胃癌组织中EFHD1的表达显著增加（ = 6.246， < 0.001）。EFHD1蛋白表达与浸润深度（χ = 19.120， < 0.001）和TNM分期（χ = 14.468， = 0.002）相关。值得注意的是，EFHD1蛋白表达与胃癌肿瘤内（ = 0.420， < 0.001）和基质（ = 0.367， < 0.001）TME中的CD66b + 中性粒细胞浸润显著相关。此外，Cox回归分析显示，EFHD1是胃癌患者的独立预后预测指标（风险比[HR] = 2.262， < 0.001）。
我们的研究揭示了胃癌患者TME中EFHD1过表达的模式，并证明其作为不良临床结局生物标志物的效用，从而提供了一个潜在的免疫治疗靶点。
