Integrated analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma reveals disparate subtype of prognosis significance

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex disease with various contributing factors. Most clinical biomarkers fall short in providing an accurate prognostic evaluation for HCC patients. This underscores the urgent need to gain insight into the role of key molecules in disease progression and to develop more dependable prognosis prediction models. Our study reported that molecular subtyping based on transcriptome profiling could serve as an independent predictor of HCC prognosis. The joint use of molecular subtyping and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system was superior to each individual factor as a prognostic indicator. The multi-omics analysis revealed the activation of signal transduction, cytokines interaction, cell proliferation pathways in category A (CA) tumors, while organic compound metabolism pathways were enriched in category B (CB) tumors. These findings indicated significant and substantial molecular differences among prognostically relevant subtypes. This research highlighted the potential for widespread development and validation of molecular subtyping to improve clinical management of HCC patients. Through gaining a better understanding of the molecular variances among subtypes, such as different pathogenic pathways, this approach could guide more effective and tailored therapeutic strategies.