Abstract
BACKGROUND: Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) affects the genitourinary system. Although treatment of KIRC in early stages can be highly successful, this type of cancer is difficult to detect until later stages of disease that are less easily treatable. Previous studies have focused on tumor cells, but have ignored the contributions of the tumor microenvironment. METHODS: We analyzed KIRC gene expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas with the ESTIMATE algorithm to identify differentially expressed genes. Through protein-protein interaction network analysis, we identified clusters and picked genes from the clusters for further analysis. Differential expression, Kaplan-Meier, and univariate Cox analyses were used to select prognostic biomarkers. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) analysis were used to explore the immune characteristics of these genes as biomarkers. RESULTS: Through the ESTIMATE algorithm and other system biology tools, TNFSF13B was identified as a prognostic biomarker. TNFSF13B is highly expressed in tumors, and high expression of TNFSF13B leads to poor prognosis. Further GSEA and TIMER analysis revealed that the expression of TNFSF13B was related to the immune signaling pathway and lymphocyte infiltration. Our findings strongly suggest that TNFSF13B may be a potential biomarker or target related to the tumor microenvironment for KIRC.