Fig. 4
Screening of key CAFs-related genes in TCGA and GEO cohorts. a–b The intersection of DEGs and genes from the most related modules in TCGA and GEO cohorts revealed 74 hub genes closely related to CAFs abundance. b GO functional analysis of the 74 genes. c KEGG enrichment pathways of the 74 genes. d-e Survival-related genes by univariate Cox regression of the 74 gens in TCGA (D) and GEO (E) cohorts, genes with p-value less than 0.05 were shown in the forest plot. f The intersection of survival-related hub genes in TCGA and GEO revealed CALD1, COL18A1 and TNC as three key genes. g Correlation of the three key genes with CAFs markers in TCGA. h–i GSEA results of the Hallmark (h) and C2 Kegg gene sets (i) for high CALD1 expression group. The high CALD1 expression group was critically involved in the processes modulating the TME, including EMT, hypoxia, extracellular matrix remodeling and cytokine regulation, as revealed by GSEA