Constructing a folate metabolism gene signature for predicting prognosis in pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas

Folate metabolism is a crucial biological process in cell proliferation and exhibits its pro-tumorigenic functions in multiple tumor types. However, its role in pulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas remains uncertain. Folate metabolism related genes were obtained from previous studies, and the gene expression data and clinical data were collected from GEO database. The expression patterns of folate metabolism related genes were measured across normal and tumor tissues. We subsequently assessed their prognostic role using Kaplan-Meier and univariate Cox regression analysis. The core genes were isolated from 16 prognostic genes through four algorithms. Based on the expression of core genes, patients were divided into two clusters employing consensus clustering algorithm. Furthermore, we evaluated immune infltration level, biological mechanisms, and drug sensitivity. ALDH1L2 was finally identified through qRT-PCR and its pro-tumorigenic function was confirmed via