Low Expression of RILPL2 Predicts Poor Prognosis and Correlates With Immune Infiltration in Endometrial Carcinoma

Increasing numbers of biomarkers have been identified in various cancers. However, biomarkers associated with endometrial carcinoma (EC) remain largely to be explored. In the current research, we downloaded the RNA-seq data and corresponding clinicopathological features from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We conducted an expression analysis, which resulted in RILPL2 as a novel diagnostic biomarker in EC. The dysregulation of RILPL2 in EC was also validated in multiple datasets. The correlations between clinical features and RILPL2 expression were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Then, Kaplan-Meier analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were performed to estimate prognostic values of RILPL2 in the TCGA cohort, which revealed that increased level of RILPL2 was remarkably associated with better prognosis and could act as an independent prognostic biomarker in patients with EC. Moreover, correlation analysis of RILPL2 and tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) indicated that RILPL2 might play a critical role in regulating immune cell infiltration in EC and is related to immune response. Besides, high methylation level was a significant cause of low RILPL2 expression in EC. Subsequently, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and enrichment analysis were conducted to explore the RILPL2-involved underlying oncogenic mechanisms, and the results indicated that RILPL2 mainly regulated cell cycle. In conclusion, our findings provided evidence that downregulation of RILPL2 in EC is an indicator of adverse prognosis and RILPL2 may act as a promising target for the therapeutics of EC.

Automated summary

The study identified RILPL2 as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in endometrial carcinoma, showing that its high expression is associated with better prognosis and may regulate tumor-infiltrating immune cells and cell cycle.