Low FTO expression serves as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of patients with liver cancer

Abstract Background: As an important part of m6A modification, FTO plays a carcinogenic effect in cancer. In this study, we aim to explore whether FTO could be a new target for diagnosis and prognostic of patients with liver cancer.Material and Methods: We obtained and analysis data from TCGA database by using R software (version 3.5.1). The box plot was used to analyze the pattern of FTO expression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to evaluate diagnostic value of FTO expression in liver cancer. Fisher’s exact and chi-square tests were used to analyze relationship between FTO expression and clinical pathological characteristics. Kaplan-Meier curve and Cox regression analysis were used to explore the prognostic value of FTO in liver cancer.Results: We observed that FTO was down-regulated in liver cancer and was associated with patients’ age. ROC curve showed that FTO expression had good clinical diagnostic value. Our results also revealed that FTO expression was associated with age, histologic grade, M classification, vital status, and overall survival (OS) of patients. Low FTO expression decreased OS, and was an independent predictor of poor prognosis in patients with liver cancer.Conclusion: FTO could serves as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of liver cancer