Abstract
Chromosome 16 open reading frame 54 (C16orf54) is a protein coding gene, showing a biased expression in the bone marrow, lymph node, and 11 other tissues. Reports on the function of C16orf54 in the onset and development of tumours remain scarce. Clinical information and tumour expression profile data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) were utilized to determine the relationship between C16orf54 expression and prognosis, diagnosis, immune microenvironment, heterogeneity, and stemness across pan-cancer. The findings ascertained that C16orf54 was expressed at a low level in most cancers. Furthermore, C16orf54 could distinguish between cancer and normal tissues with high accuracy in most cancers, and the prognostic significance of low C16orf54 mRNA levels differs across cancers. C16orf54 expression was positively linked to the stromal, immune, and ESTIMATE scores. On the other hand, C16orf54 was reported to be negatively correlated with tumour purity in most cancers. Further, C16orf54 expression was positively correlated with immune cell infiltration and the expression of immune regulatory genes, including chemokines, receptors, major histocompatibility complexes, immune inhibitory, and immune stimulatory genes, in most cancers. Additionally, C16orf54 expression was significantly associated with tumour heterogeneity indicators, such as tumour mutation burden (TMB) and microsatellite instability (MSI), and was significantly correlated with DNAss and RNAss tumour stemness indicators. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, as well as Gene Set Enrichment analysis (GSEA), revealed that C16orf54 expression was closely linked to the signalling pathways of immune cells and factors. The integrated analysis of C16orf54 indicates it as a potential prognostic, diagnostic, and immune marker, which could be adopted as a novel target for adjuvant immunotherapy across pan-cancer.