The comprehensive role of cuproptosis-related genes in rectum adenocarcinoma: value for precise prognosis and treatment

Abstract The incidence of cancers in the digestive system has witnessed a surge in recent years. With the refinement of related research, rectum adenocarcinoma (READ) has been discovered to have inimitable role among digestive tumors, especially when compared with colon adenocarcinoma. Cuproptosis is a recently identified form of non-apoptotic programmed cell death, exhibiting distinct characteristics with implications in tumorigenesis. In this article, we delved into the relationship between cuproptosis related genes and the categorization and prognosis of READ. Based on consensus clustering, READ samples are divided into three clusters with variant survival status and enriched biological pathways. To better evaluate the risk of patients, a cuproptosis-related gene score is established to precisely describe the correlation of cuproptosis subtypes and patient prognosis. Moreover, multiple immune infiltration deconvolution algorisms are utilized to discover the immune status of different cuproptosis subtypes. Generally, cuproptosis had great clinical implications in READ and a cuproptosis related prognostic score was established using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. Further investigation defined lipoic acid synthetase (LIAS) as a favorable gene for the prognosis of READ patients. This study provided unprecedented insight into the role of cuproptosis in READ, presenting it as a promising target for cancer therapy.