A pan-cancer analysis of the human tumor coagulome and its link to the tumor immune microenvironment
Résumé
Objective Solid tumors often establish a procoagulable state that can lead to venous thromboembolism (VTE). Although some of the key genes involved in this process are known, no previous study has compared the ``coagulome'', i.e., the expression of coagulation/fibrinolysis genes, across different primary tumor types. It is also unclear whether the coagulome is associated with specific characteristics of the tumor microenvironment (TME). We aimed to address this question. Methods We analyzed the expression of the genesF3, PLAU, PLAT, PLAUR, SERPINB2,andSERPINE1in 32 cancer types using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and other freely available resources. Results We identified specific expression patterns of procoagulant and fibrinolytic genes. The expression of the Tissue Factor (F3) was found to be tumor type dependent, with the highest expression in glioblastoma (GBM), a highly procoagulable tumor type. Conversely, high expression of the fibrinolysis gene clusterPLAU, PLAUR, SERPINE1was consistently linked to the characteristics of the TME (monocytic infiltration) and high expression of important checkpoints of the immune response, such as PD-L2 and CD276/B7-H3. Conclusion These tumor-specific patterns of expression might partially explain the differences in VTE risk among tumor types. We propose that biomarkers of coagulation fibrinolysis might provide valuable information about the TME in cancer patients.