Construction and verification of a prognostic model for cervical cancer based on genes associated with the p53 regulatory pathway.

Background: Cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC) poses significant health risks, contributing to high mortality rates and economic burdens, particularly in developing countries. The p53 signaling pathway plays a crucial role in the initiation, progression, and treatment response of CESC. This study explored the role of SMYD2 among genes related to the p53 regulatory pathway in CESC. Methods: A prognostic model for p53 regulatory pathway-related genes was established by performing least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis on the training cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. By amalgamating the risk scores generated by the model with clinical characteristics, a nomogram was developed to assist in predicting overall survival (OS). In addition, we examined various associations concerning pathway enrichment, treatment modalities, immune cell infiltration, and the prognostic model itself. The functional role of the SMYD2 gene was assessed through Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Furthermore, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the relationship between SMYD2 expression and an array of clinical parameters, including tumor (T), lymph node (N), and metastasis (M) stages, age, and tissue type, utilizing data from the TCGA database. Employing the "rms" R package, we constructed a nomogram model that integrates clinical features with levels of SMYD2 expression. Additionally, immunohistochemical assessments were performed on samples from 30 cervical cancer patients to analyze the expression of SMYD2. Results: We established a prognostic model that encompasses six genes: SMYD2, E4F1, FBXO11, HIPK2, KAT2B, and TP53. The relationships between the alterations in the expression of these genes and patient survival outcomes were validated using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Among the six selected prognostic genes, we found that increased SMYD2 expression is linked to advanced T and M stages, higher clinical staging, diverse histological types, and poor prognosis. A nomogram was created to integrate SMYD2 expression with clinical factors to forecast the OS probabilities of patients at the 1-, 3-, and 5-year marks. Furthermore, immunohistochemical evaluations disclosed that in a cohort of 33 cases, the expression levels of SMYD2 in cervical cancer tissues were significantly greater than those observed in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Conclusions: This study elucidates specific features associated with the p53 regulatory pathway, particularly SMYD2, and its relationship with the onset and progression of CESC. Furthermore, SMYD2 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for individuals diagnosed with CESC, offering new insights for the development of clinical treatment strategies.