• Liangbin Wang, Xinlei Jiang, Xingguo Zhang, and Peng Shu.
• Department of Anorectal Surgery, Beilun People's Hospital, Ningbo.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Apr 2; 100 (13): e25148e25148.

BackgroundThe heterogeneity of colorectal cancer (CRC) poses a significant challenge to the precise treatment of patients. CRC has been divided into 4 consensus molecular subtypes (CMSs) with distinct biological and clinical characteristics, of which CMS4 has the mesenchymal identity and the highest relapse rate. Autophagy plays a vital role in CRC development and therapeutic response.MethodsThe gene expression profiles collected from 6 datasets were applied to this study. Network analysis was applied to integrate the subtype-specific molecular modalities and autophagy signature to establish an autophagy-based prognostic signature for CRC (APSCRC).ResultsNetwork analysis revealed that 6 prognostic autophagy genes (VAMP7, DLC1, FKBP1B, PEA15, PEX14, and DNAJB1) predominantly regulated the mesenchymal modalities of CRC. The APSCRC was constructed by these 6 core genes and applied for risk calculation. Patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups based on APSCRC score in all cohorts. Patients within the high-risk group showed an unfavorable prognosis. In multivariate analysis, the APSCRC remained an independent predictor of prognosis. Moreover, the APSCRC achieved higher prognostic power than commercialized multigene signatures.ConclusionsWe proposed and validated an autophagy-based signature, which is a promising prognostic biomarker of CRC patients. Further prospective studies are warranted to test and validate its efficiency for clinical application.Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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