Prognostic Correlation of Glycolysis-Related Gene Signature in Patients with Laryngeal Cancer

Background Aerobic glycolysis is one of the metabolic characteristics of tumor cells, which is regulated by many genes. The aim of our study was to construct glycolysis-related gene signature to accurately predict the prognosis of laryngeal cancer (LC) patients. Methods We analyzed the mRNA expression profiles of LC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Eleven glycolysis-related gene sets were analyzed by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). In order to acquire the gene signature related to prognosis, we used univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results We confirmed that a gene signature composed of two genes (STC2, LHPP) can predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with LC. Based on each patient's risk score, we found that the survival results of patients in the high-risk group were significantly lower than those in the low-risk group (log‐rank test P‐value=0.002). Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that gene signature could independently predict OS in LC patients (HR = 1.981, 95% CI 1.446–2.714 P<0.001). In addition, a nomogram including the age, sex, grade and risk score was constructed. The nomogram demonstrated good accuracy for OS prediction, with a C-index of 0.752. Conclusion The glycolysis-related two-gene risk score model could be used as a biomarker for LC prognosis.