A Novel Prognostic Biomarker CENPF in Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: The objective of this study was to examine the expression disparity, prognostic implication, and potential mechanism of centromeric protein F (CENPF) in papillary renal cell carcinoma (PRCC). A series of advanced methods were employed, including the utilisation of the R language for data analysis, the incorporation of the Human Protein Mapping (HPA) database as a resource, functional enrichment analysis, single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), epigenetic studies (including the EWAS and MEXPRESS platforms), survival analysis and Cox regression analysis, amongst others. The expression characteristics, prognostic associations, and potential carcinogenic pathways of CENPF in PRCC were subjected to analysis. The findings indicated that CENPF was markedly overexpressed in PRCC and was significantly correlated with poor prognosis. Results: A growing body of evidence from studies on papillary renal cell carcinoma indicates that the expression level of the CENPF gene is significantly elevated. This abnormally high expression is found to be closely related to several core clinicopathological features, including pathological stage, T stage reflecting tumour size and invasion, N stage reflecting lymph node metastasis, and M stage indicating the presence of distant metastasis. Furthermore, the age of the patient is a contributing factor. A comprehensive examination substantiated a notable correlation between elevated CENPF expression and diminished overall survival. Furthermore, high expression was linked to reduced disease-specific survival and progression-free survival. CENPF is a key biomarker for evaluating the prognosis of patients with renal papillary cell carcinoma and can provide an important reference for clinical decision-making. Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that CENPF is not only an independent predictor of poor prognosis but also independently affects the overall survival of patients, thereby highlighting its central role in prognosis assessment. There was a positive correlation between CENPF overexpression and the degree of infiltration of multiple immune cell subpopulations, including helper T cell type 2, activated dendritic cells, central memory T cells, and helper T cells. Conclusion: CENPF is a pivotal marker in the field of papillary renal cell carcinoma research, offering a scientific foundation for prognostic assessment and targeted therapy development. An analysis of CENPF expression can accurately predict the prognosis of patients and facilitate the implementation of a personalised treatment plan.