# Pan-cancer analysis identifies DBF4B as an immunologic and prognostic biomarker

## TL;DR

This study finds that DBF4B is a potential biomarker for cancer prognosis and immunity across various cancer types, especially in liver cancer.

## Contribution

The first pan-cancer analysis of DBF4B's differential expression, prognosis, and immune associations using public databases.

## Key findings

- DBF4B shows significant differential expression across most cancer types and subtypes.
- High DBF4B expression correlates with poor survival outcomes in liver hepatocellular carcinoma.
- DBF4B is linked to clinical factors like age, BMI, and tumor status in liver cancer.

## Abstract

DBF4 zinc finger B (DBF4B) is a regulator of cellular CDC7 proteins, and the complex it forms with CDC7 proteins plays a key role in coordinating the initiation of DNA replication. Compared with previous DBF4B studies, this study is the first to use a publicly available database to explore DBF4B differential expression and prognosis in different cancers, as well as its association with gene mutations, molecular and immune subtypes, immune infiltration, methylation, and drug sensitivity. Our results showed that DBF4B was significantly differentially expressed in most cancer types as well as in cancers with different molecular and immune subtypes, and DBF4B was also significantly correlated with the prognosis of a subset of cancers. Furthermore, our analysis showed that DBF4B expression in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) was associated with a variety of factors, including age, gender, race, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), presence of residual tumor, and tumor status. Elevated DBF4B expression was correlated with poorer overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and progression-free interval (PFI). especially in different clinical subtypes. In conclusion, DBF4B may be a key molecular biomarker for pan-cancer immunology and prognosis and an independent prognostic risk factor for LIHC.