Development and validation of a collagen signature to predict the prognosis of patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer

Shumin Dong; Huaiming Wang; Hongli Ji; Yaowen Hu; Shuhan Zhao; Botao Yan; Guangxing Wang; Zexi Lin; Weifeng Zhu; Jianping Lu; Jiaxin Cheng; Zhida Wu; Qiong Zhu; Shuangmu Zhuo; Gang Chen; Jun Yan

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106746

Development and validation of a collagen signature to predict the prognosis of patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer

iScience. 2023 Apr 25;26(5):106746. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106746. eCollection 2023 May 19.

Authors

Shumin Dong^{1

2}, Huaiming Wang^{3

4}, Hongli Ji¹, Yaowen Hu¹, Shuhan Zhao¹, Botao Yan¹, Guangxing Wang^{2

5}, Zexi Lin⁶, Weifeng Zhu⁷, Jianping Lu⁷, Jiaxin Cheng¹, Zhida Wu⁷, Qiong Zhu⁷, Shuangmu Zhuo², Gang Chen⁷, Jun Yan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Gastrointestinal Tumor, Nanfang Hospital, The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
² School of Science, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China.
³ Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Guangdong Institute of Gastroenterology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases Supported by National Key Clinical Discipline, Guangzhou 510630, China.
⁵ Center for Molecular Imaging and Translational Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361021, China.
⁶ Fujian University, Fuzhou 350000, China.
⁷ Department of Pathology & Precision Medicine Center, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou 350011, China.

Abstract

The tumor, nodes and metastasis (TNM) classification system provides useful but incomplete prognostic information and lacks the assessment of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Collagen, the main component of the TME extracellular matrix, plays a nonnegligible role in tumor invasion and metastasis. In this cohort study, we aimed to develop and validate a TME collagen signature (CS_TME) for prognostic prediction of stage II/III colorectal cancer (CRC) and to compare the prognostic values of "TNM stage + CS_TME" with that of TNM stage alone. Results indicated that the CS_TME was an independent prognostic risk factor for stage II/III CRC (hazard ratio: 2.939, 95% CI: 2.180-3.962, p < 0.0001), and the integration of the TNM stage and CS_TME had a better prognostic value than that of the TNM stage alone (AUC_(TNM+CSTME) = 0.772, AUC _TNM = 0.687, p < 0.0001). This study provided an application of "seed and soil" strategy for prognosis prediction and individualized therapy.

Keywords: Cancer systems biology; Medical informatics.