A Novel Risk Model of SUMOylation-related Genes Associated with Prognosis in Endometrial Cancer

Background: Endometrial cancer is ranked fourth in women's cancers worldwide. SUMOylation is a process of post-translational modification and some evidence indicate that SUMOylation may influence the occurrence and development of cancer. Until now, the prognostic value of SUMOylation-related genes in endometrial cancer remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed at exploring the prognostic value of SUMOylation-related genes in endometrial cancer in this study. Methods: The transcriptome of endometrial cancer from TCGA database was downloaded and then differentially expressed SUMOylation-related genes were extracted. The risk model was constructed with the use of the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression. Samples were divided into low-risk and high-risk group based on the risk score. Survival analysis and Cox analysis were performed between groups. A validation cohort from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center were obtained to verify the model. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encylopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses were conducted based on differentially expressed genes between groups. Results: Samples in low-risk group possess better outcome than in high-risk group. (P<0.001) The results of univariate (P<0.001) and multivariate (P=0.018) analysis showed that the risk score was independently correlated to worse outcome for patients with endometrial cancer. In Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center validation cohort, the low-risk group possessed better survival outcome than the high-risk group (P=0.0393). Functional analysis demonstrated that most of the immune cell infiltration levels and immune pathways activity in low-risk group were higher than in high-risk group. Conclusions: In short, the SUMOylation-related signature had good predictability in endometrial cancer and SUMOylation-related genes play important roles in tumour immunity. Also, our study might have some merits in elucidating potential mechanism of SUMOylation in endometrial cancer.