title: Diagnostic and prognostic roles of IRAK1 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues: an analysis of immunohistochemistry and RNA-sequencing data from the cancer genome atlas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  IRAK1 has been repoted to play an essential role in the development of multiple cancers. However, the clinical significance of IRAK1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the underlying molecular mechanism remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of IRAK1 in the pathogenesis of HCC in this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  HCC tissues and para-carcinoma tissues were collected for immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis to evaluate IRAK1 expression. Data of IRAK1 expression were downloaded from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) for analyzing the clinical significance of IRAK1. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and survival analyses were carried out to assess the diagnostic and prognostic significance of IRAK1 in IHC and TCGA data. Additionally, we investigated the alteration ofIRAK1gene in HCC from cBioPortal to generate a network of the interaction between IRAK1 and the neighboring genes. The influence ofIRAK1gene alteration on the prognosis of HCC patients was evaluated by survival analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analysis of both IHC and TCGA data revealed a significant upregulation of IRAK1 in HCC tissues. The IHC analysis revealed there was an increasing trend in IRAK1 expression among normal liver tissues, liver cirrhosis tissues, para-carcinoma tissues and HCC tissues. The ROC curves for IHC and TCGA data demonstrated that IRAK1 exhibited a significant diagnostic value for HCC. Moreover, IRAK1 expression was observed to be associated with tumor size, metastasis and T-stage. The survival analysis indicated that the upregulation of IRAK1 predicted a worse overall survival of HCC. Additionally, data from cBioPortal confirmed that 29% of HCC tissues possessed an alteration of theIRAK1gene.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IRAK1 may act as an oncogene in the development of HCC with its overexpression in HCC. Moreover, IRAK1 might serve as a promising diagnostic and therapeutic target for HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Zhi-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasonography, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Dong-Yue
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasonography, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Yu-Yan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: IRAK1; RNA-seq; diagnosis; hepatocellular carcinoma; immunohistochemistry; prognosis