Development and Validation of the B Cell-Associated Fc Receptor-like Molecule-Based Prognostic Signature in Skin Cutaneous Melanoma

Abstract

Backgroud. Cutaneous melanoma (CM) causes the highest absolute number of deaths among all types of skin cancers; however, the association between Fc receptor- (FcR-) like (FCRL) molecules and CM remains unclear. Methods. 461 patients with CM from The Cancer Genome Atlast- (TCGA-) CM cohort and 290 pateints from the GSE65904 cohort were enrolled. Student’s t-test was used to compare the differences, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was employed to evaluate associations. The Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival analysis was used to evaluate overall survival (OS). The multivariate Cox regression was conducted to generate the FCRL prognostic signature. GSEA analysis and TIMER were employed to study the potential mechanisms. Result. Patients with Breslow’s depth high or equal to 3 cm had the lower expression of FCRL1-6 (all, P<0.05), which indicates poor OS, as well as age, stage, and Breslow’s depth subgroups (all, P<0.001). The overall FCRL1-6 prognostic signature was generated in the TCGA cohort (K-M, P<0.001; area under the curve (AUC), 0.649 for 3-year OS) and validated in the GSE65904 cohort (K-M, P<0.001; AUC, 0.659 for 3-year OS). The GSEA results revealed that high expression of FCRLs indicated activated immune-associated pathways, and FCRLs are positively associated with the infiltration of B cells. Conclusion. Highly expressed FCRLs were observed associated with a favourable OS of CM. FCRL1-6-based prediction signature could act as a biomarker to predict the prognosis of patients with CM.