Abstract
BACKGROUND: INHBA is a member of the TGF-β superfamily and is overexpressed in a variety of cancers and affects prognosis.However, its pan-cancer expression profile and specific roles in HNSC and LIHC remain poorly understood. METHODS: We used several databases such as TCGA to study the pan-cancer effects of INHBA, including the expression of INHBA and its correlation with clinical survival, immune checkpoints, tumor stemness scores, prognostic value, immunomodulators, genomic profiles, immune profiling, immunotherapy and functional enrichment; and further analyzed its relationship with HNSC and LIHC. RESULTS: First, we observed that the expression level of INHBA was elevated in most tumor tissues compared to non-tumor tissues, and that high expression of INHBA may have a higher prognostic value in some cancers. In addition, INHBA was significantly associated with immune checkpoints, immunomodulators, prognosis, immunomodulatory genes, tumor stemness score, cellular functional status, and immune infiltration in most tumors. Finally, further analysis of INHBA-associated gene enrichment, mutation sites and types, RNA modifications, and genomic heterogeneity showed that the main mutation types of INHBA were missense mutations and that INHBA played a very important role in HNSC and LIHC; and immunotherapy analysis also suggested that low expression of INHBA might result in better specific immunotherapy response. CONCLUSION: This study comprehensively reveals the important functions of INHBA in different types of cancer. It also has the potential to identify INHBA as a potential biomarker for predicting treatment response. This may help us better understand how INHBA works in cancer and provide valuable insights for developing personalized treatments.