Fibroblast-based FN1CFD contributes to parathyroid cancer identification using integrated analysis

Abstract

Parathyroid cancer (PC) is a highly aggressive cancer with high relapse and metastasis rate. However, there still lack effective preoperative and intraoperative ways to discriminate between PC and parathyroid adenoma (PA). The intrinsic biological alternations that lead to PC still unclear. Here, we performed integrated analysis on the transcriptomic data of parathyroid tumors. To identify pivotal genes associated with PC diagnosis, we integrated the immune infiltration analysis, gene differential analysis and ROC analysis, and discovered that fibroblast expressed gene FN1 and CFD (FC score) was of great importance. The cancer diagnostic value of FC score was also validated in pan-cancer data covering the TCGA bulk tumor and single cell data. Cell communication and cancer hallmark correlation analysis showed that FC score was strongly associated with EMT process, which was the key step for tumor invasion and metastasis. Our results suggest the tumor fibroblast phenotype defined by FC score contributed to PC identification.