Wang Zhenglin, Han Qijun, Hu Xianyu, Wang Xu, Sun Rui, Huang Siwei, Chen Wei
Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University Hefei, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, PR China.
Department of interventional radiology, Fuyang People's Hospital, Fuyang, 236000, Anhui, PR China.
Genes Immun. 2025 Apr;26(2):137-150. doi: 10.1038/s41435-025-00322-w. Epub 2025 Mar 4.
Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy worldwide. This study aimed to explore the molecular subtypes and improve the selection of targeted therapies. We used multi-omics data from 539 patients with DNA methylation, gene mutations, mRNA, lncRNA, and miRNA expressions. This study employed consensus clustering algorithms to identify molecular subtypes and used various bioinformatics tools to analyze genetic alterations, signaling pathways, immune infiltration, and responses to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Two prognostically relevant TC subtypes, CS1 and CS2, were identified. CS2 was associated with a poorer prognosis of shorter progression-free survival times (P < 0.001). CS1 exhibited higher copy number alterations but a lower tumor mutation burden than CS2. CS2 exhibited activation in cell proliferation and immune-related pathways. Drug sensitivity analysis indicated CS2's higher sensitivity to cisplatin, doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and sunitinib, whereas CS1 was more sensitive to bicalutamide and FH535. The different activated pathways and sensitivity to drugs for the subtypes were further validated in an external cohort. Twenty-four paired tumors and adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemical staining further demonstrated the prognostic value of CXCL17. In conclusion, we identified two distinct molecular subtypes of TC with significant implications for prognosis, genetic alterations, pathway activation, and treatment response.
甲状腺癌(TC)是全球最常见的内分泌恶性肿瘤。本研究旨在探索分子亚型并改善靶向治疗的选择。我们使用了来自539例患者的多组学数据,包括DNA甲基化、基因突变、mRNA、lncRNA和miRNA表达。本研究采用一致性聚类算法来识别分子亚型,并使用各种生物信息学工具来分析基因改变、信号通路、免疫浸润以及对化疗和免疫治疗的反应。确定了两种与预后相关的TC亚型,即CS1和CS2。CS2与无进展生存期较短的较差预后相关(P < 0.001)。与CS2相比,CS1表现出更高的拷贝数改变,但肿瘤突变负担较低。CS2在细胞增殖和免疫相关通路中表现出激活。药物敏感性分析表明CS2对顺铂、阿霉素、紫杉醇和舒尼替尼的敏感性较高,而CS1对比卡鲁胺和FH535更敏感。在一个外部队列中进一步验证了亚型不同的激活通路和对药物的敏感性。通过免疫组织化学染色对24对肿瘤和相邻正常组织进行分析,进一步证明了CXCL17的预后价值。总之,我们确定了TC的两种不同分子亚型,它们对预后、基因改变、通路激活和治疗反应具有重要意义。