Construction and validation of a novel eight-gene risk score to predict the progression and prognosis of bladder cancer

Abstract Background: The progression from non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) to muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) increases the risk of death. It is therefore important to find new relevant molecular models that will allow for effective prediction of the progression of bladder cancer (BC).Methods: Using RNA-Sequence data of 49 BC patients in our center and weighted gene co-expression network analysis methods, a co-expression network of genes was developed from which three key modules with prognostic value were selected using Univariate Cox regression in The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA). Subsequently, an eight-gene risk score was established using the Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox model. Results: A novel eight-gene risk score was closely related to the malignant clinical features of BC and could predict the prognosis of patients in the training dataset (TCGA) and two validation sets (GSE3289 and GSE13507). Further, a nomogram for predicting the overall survival of patients was designed. The nomogram showed good calibration with clinical value through decision curve analysis. Lastly, we found that the mRNA and protein expression level of the eight genes were found to be differentially expressed in cell lines and tissue.Conclusions: In our study, we established a novel eight-gene risk score which could predict the progression and prognoses of BC patients.