Abstract:

Objective To explore the expression of KIF26B gene in epithelial ovarian cancer（EOC）and to analyze the association of KIF26B withclinic⁃pathological features，immune cell infiltration in the tumor micro⁃ environment and prognosis. Methods Clinical information and transcriptome data of EOC patients from TCGA （The Cancer Genome Atlas）database were collected. Theassociation of KIF26B with EOC clinicopathological features，related signaling pathways，microenvironmental immune cell infiltration，and survival prognosis was analyzed by proportional risk model（Cox），gene set enrichment（GSEA），CIBERSORT，and KM curves. KIF26B expression in EOC by immunohistochemistry was verified. Results KIF26B mRNA expression in EOC was sig⁃ nificantly higher than that of the normal ovarian tissue（P < 0.05）. KIF26B expression was significantly correlated with FIGO stage，tumor residual foci（RD），poor prognosis，and the proportion of immune infiltrating cells in the microenvironment（P < 0.05），independent of age，pathological grade，and whether postoperative（P > 0.05）. Pathway enrichment showed that KIF26B was involved in mesenchymal cell differentiation，vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF），focal adhesion and other signaling pathways that promote tumor recurrence and metastasis. Multifactorial Cox analysis showed that high KIF26B expression was an independent risk factor for patient prognosis （P < 0.05），and immunohistochemistry further validated that high KIF26B expression in EOC. Conclusion High expression of KIF26B in EOC was an independent risk factor for prognosis and was associated with tumor immune infiltration and EOC recurrence and metastasis. It is assumed that KIF26B could be a prognostic marker and poten⁃ tial therapeutic target for EOC.

Key words:

KIF26B, epithelial ovarian cancer, tumor microenvironment, bioinformatics, prognosis