Abstract
Background/aim
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) comprises multiple histological subtypes, such as kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) and kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP), each with distinct molecular characteristics. Identifying novel genes involved in the onset and progression of these subtypes is crucial for the development of more effective treatments. This study investigates the role of CTD nuclear envelope phosphatase 1 (CTDNEP1), a phosphatase-encoding gene, in KIRC and KIRP using multi-omics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).Materials and methods
We analyzed CTDNEP1 expression in KIRC and KIRP using TCGA and Pan-Cancer Atlas datasets. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox proportional hazard analyses were performed to evaluate the association between CTDNEP1 expression and patient prognosis. We explored biological processes associated with CTDNEP1 expression using GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. Finally, we examined the relationship between CTDNEP1 expression and the tumor immune microenvironment using immune infiltration analysis.Results
CTDNEP1 expression was significantly higher in KIRC and KIRP tissues compared to normal tissues, especially in early-stage tumors. Prognostic impact in KIRP was limited and inconsistent, whereas in KIRC, high CTDNEP1 expression correlated with significantly poorer patient prognosis, particularly in Stage III. Functional enrichment analysis revealed associations with immune-related pathways in KIRC, whereas in KIRP, associations were observed with pathways involved in the PI3K-Akt, MAPK, and TGF-β signaling pathways. In the immune infiltration analysis, CTDNEP1 expression showed only weak correlation with immune cell infiltration.Conclusion
CTDNEP1 expression was associated with subtype-dependent prognostic patterns in RCC. In particular, high CTDNEP1 expression was associated with adverse survival outcomes in KIRC. These findings suggest that CTDNEP1 may serve as a candidate prognostic biomarker in RCC. Further experimental studies are required to clarify whether CTDNEP1 directly contributes to RCC progression.