Rad51,
a DNA-repair-related gene, has been reported to be involved in multiple
cancers. However, its link with immune infiltration in
liver cancer still unknown. Therefore, more research into the roles and activities of Rad51 in
hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is required. The International
Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) was used to identify the DNA repair gene Rad51, and has been proved to be overexpressed in HCC patients. We plotted the Kapan-Meier curve, demonstrating that patients with high expression of Rad51 have a poor prognosis. By analyzing the patient data, we discovered that high expression of Rad51 in HCC is linked to clinical stage, pathological T stage, grade, and age. Rad51 was found to be an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients using the multivariate cox model. Moreover, Rad51 expression was found to be associated with the infiltration of immune cells (B cells, CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells) and was intimately linked to the expression of immune cell markers in HCC. Through the analysis of differentially coexpressed genes (DCGs) of Rad51, GO and KEGG enrichment analyses suggested that the expression level of Rad51 might be relevant to neuroactive
ligand-receptor interactions, the cell cycle, DNA replication, homologous recombination, oocyte meiosis, and the
Fanconi anemia pathway. These findings indicated that Rad51 is a valuable
biomarker for the prognosis of patients with
liver cancer and that its expression has a significant correlation with immune infiltrations.Abbreviations: HCC:
hepatocellular carcinoma; ICGC: International
Cancer Genome Consortium TCGA: The
Cancer Genome Atlas; TIMER:
Tumor Immune Estimation Resource; CAF: Cancer-associated fibroblast; GEPIA: Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis; GSEA: Gene set enrichment analysis; OS: overall survival; PFS: progression-free survival; RFS: relapse-free survival; DSS: disease-specific survival. Partial cor: partial correlation coefficient; HPA: Human
Protein Atlas; GO: Gene Ontology; KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; CAF: Cancer-associated fibroblast; DCGs: differentially co-expressed genes.