Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jan 27, 2023; 15(1): 116-122
Published online Jan 27, 2023. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i1.116
Prognostic role of ring finger and WD repeat domain 3 and immune cell infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma
Yan-Dong Miao, Wu-Xia Quan, Jiang-Tao Wang, Jian Gan, Xin Dong, Fang Zhang
Yan-Dong Miao, Fang Zhang, Cancer Center, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264000, Shandong Province, China
Wu-Xia Quan, Department of Electrocardiogram, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264100, Shandong Province, China
Jiang-Tao Wang, Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264000, Shandong Province, China
Jian Gan, Department of Gastroenterology, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264000, Shandong Province, China
Xin Dong, Second Department of Oncology, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264000, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Miao YD and Zhang F designed the research; Miao YD wrote the paper; Quan WX and Wang JT performed the data analysis, Gan J and Dong X prepared the tables and figures; Zhang F and Miao YD reviewed the manuscript; Miao YD and Quan WX contributed equally to the article; All authors approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fang Zhang, MD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Cancer Center, Yantai Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, No. 717 Jinbu Street, Muping District, Yantai 264000, Shandong Province, China. zhangfang820127@163.com
Received: October 17, 2022
Peer-review started: October 17, 2022
First decision: November 15, 2022
Revised: October 29, 2022
Accepted: December 23, 2022
Article in press: December 23, 2022
Published online: January 27, 2023
Abstract

We have found that the expression of ring finger and WD repeat domain 3 (RFWD3) is significantly higher in unpaired and paired hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues than in normal tissues. Moreover, this expression has a significant correlation with the infiltration level of 14 immune cell types and when the detected RFWD3 expression levels were grouped as high and low, a prominent difference was revealed for overall survival, disease-specific survival, and progression-free interval. Through statistical analysis (univariate Cox), we were also able to identify RFWD3 as an independent prognostic element for HCC, with RFWD3 having an ability to accurately predict HCC prognosis (area under the curve of 0.863). Finally, we have generated prognostic nomograms for probabilities of 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival in HCC via integrating the factors of age, pathologic stage, alpha-fetoprotein level, and RFWD3 expression.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Ring finger and WD repeat domain 3, Immune cell infiltration, Bioinformatics

Core Tip: We have discovered that ring finger and WD repeat domain 3 (RFWD3) expression is remarkably higher in tumor tissues compared to corresponding non-tumor tissues, regardless of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue type (unpaired or paired). The RFWD3 expression also showed a significant correlation with the infiltration level of 14 immune cell types and was identified as an independent prognostic element in HCC by univariate Cox regression analysis. Our collective findings suggest that RFWD3 has the ability to accurately predict prognosis of HCC.