CFLAR: A novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in soft tissue sarcoma, which positively modulates the immune response in the tumor microenvironment

Anoikis is highly associated with tumor cell apoptosis and tumor prognosis; however, the specific role of anoikis-related genes (ARGs) in soft tissue sarcoma (STS) remains to be fully elucidated. The present study aimed to use a variety of bioinformatics methods to determine differentially expressed anoikis-related genes in STS and healthy tissues. Subsequently, three machine learning algorithms, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, Support Vector Machine and Random Forest, were used to screen genes with the highest importance score. The results of the bioinformatics analyses demonstrated that CASP8 and FADD-like apoptosis regulator (CFLAR) exhibited the highest importance score. Subsequently, the diagnostic and prognostic value of CFLAR in STS development was determined using multiple public and in-house cohorts. The results of the present study demonstrated that CFLAR may be considered a diagnostic and prognostic marker of STS, which acts as an independent prognostic factor of STS development. The present study also aimed to explore the potential role of CFLAR in the STS tumor microenvironment, and the results demonstrated that CFLAR significantly enhanced the immune response of STS, and exerted a positive effect on the infiltration of CD8+ T cells and M1 macrophages in the STS immune microenvironment. Notably, the aforementioned results were verified using multiplex immunofluorescence analysis. Collectively, the results of the present study demonstrated that CFLAR may act as a novel diagnostic and prognostic marker for STS, and may positively regulate the immune response of STS. Thus, the present study provided a novel theoretical basis for the use of CFLAR in STS diagnosis, in predicting clinical outcomes and in tailoring individualized treatment options.