N-glycan signatures identified in the serum from biliary tract cancer patients: Association with clinical diagnosis and prognosis

Background

Changes in the expression of genes related to glycosyltransferases may lead to alterations in N-glycan structure abundance, potentially acting as markers for diagnosis and prognosis in biliary tract cancer (BTC).

Methods

This study was divided into cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. The cross-sectional study included 316 BTC and 301 non-BTC. Propensity score matching was applied to adjust for sex and age differences between BTC and non-BTC. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression identified independent risk factors for BTC and constructed the BTC-G model. The ROC curve was used to validate the diagnostic performance of BTC-G. Longitudinal follow-up studies included postoperative (N = 50) and immunotherapy (N = 43) follow-up cohorts. Cox regression analysis identified N-glycan structures impacting BTC prognosis postoperative and immunotherapy, with further confirmation through Kaplan–Meier curves.

Results

Univariate and multivariate analyses identified Peak3 (OR: 0.790, 95% CI: 0.658–0.949), Peak9 (OR: 1.646, 95% CI: 1.409–1.922), and Peak9p (OR: 2.467, 95% CI: 1.267–4.804) as independent BTC risk factors, leading to the creation of the BTC-G. The ROC curve confirmed that BTC-G performed well in training (AUC: 0.753, 95% CI: 0.703–0.799), validation (AUC: 0.811, 95% CI: 0.740–0.870), and CA19-9 negative cohorts (AUC: 0.717, 95% CI: 0.664–0.767). Cox regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier curves established that Peak12 (HR: 5.578, 95% CI: 1.145–27.170) and Peak11 (HR: 1.104, 95% CI: 0.611–1.994) are independent risk factors for BTC prognosis following surgery and immunotherapy, respectively.

Conclusions

Our NGFP technology supplements BTC diagnostics, distinguishing survival and recurrence subtypes for postoperative and immunotherapy, thereby supporting the development of treatment strategies.