Association of tRNA methyltransferase NSUN2/IGF-II molecular signature with ovarian cancer survival

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the association between NSUN2/IGF-II signature and ovarian cancer survival. Methods: Using a publicly accessible dataset of RNA sequencing and clinical follow-up data, we performed Classification and Regression Tree and survival analyses. Results: Patients with NSUN2 high IGF-II low had significantly superior overall and disease progression-free survival, followed by NSUN2 low IGF-II low, NSUN2 high IGF-II high and NSUN2 low IGF-II high (p < 0.0001 for overall, p = 0.0024 for progression-free survival, respectively). The associations of NSUN2/IGF-II signature with the risks of death and relapse remained significant in multivariate Cox regression models. Random-effects meta-analyses show the upregulated NSUN2 and IGF-II expression in ovarian cancer versus normal tissues. Conclusion: The NSUN2/IGF-II signature associates with heterogeneous outcome and may have clinical implications in managing ovarian cancer.