The exact biological role of PCOLCE was not yet clear and there were few reports study the correlation of PCOLCE gene expression level with the occurrence and development of gastric cancer.
The expression of PCOLCE was analyzed by performing the Oncomine and Ualcan database. We evaluated the function of PCOLCE on clinical prognosis with the use of Kaplan–Meier plotter database. The relationship between PCOLCE and cancer immune in filtrates was researched by Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) site database.
PCOLCE significantly upregulated in gastric cancer patients compared to normal gastric samples. And the increased expression of PCOLCE mRNA was closely linked to shorter overall survival (OS), progress-free survival (PFS) in all gastric cancers. Besides, PCOLCE expression displayed a tight correlation with infiltrating levels of macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) in gastric cancer. Moreover, PCOLCE expression was positively correlated with diverse immune marker sets in gastric cancer.
All the results above suggested that overexpression of PCOLCE indicated unfavorable prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. PCOLCE was correlated with immune infiltrating levels including those of B cells, CD8 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and DCs in gastric cancer patients. All the findings suggested that PCOLCE could be used as a prognostic biomarker for determining prognosis and immune infiltration in gastric cancer. Additionally, PCOLCE expression potentially contributed to the regulation of monocyte, M2 macrophage, Tfh, CD8 + T cell, TAM, Th1 cell Thus PCOLCE is a potential target for gastric cancer therapy and these preliminary findings require further study to determine whether PCOLCE-targeting reagents might be developed for clinical application in gastric cancer.