Abstract

Thyroid cancer is the most frequent endocrine malignancy, with over 80 % being its subtype of papillary thyroid cancer. Necroptosis contributes to the regulation of oncogenesis and cancer immunity. However, the prognostic significance of necroptosis-related genes in papillary thyroid cancer patients remains a topic requiring further exploration. Data from the cancer genome atlas and the gene expression omnibus databases were utilized for the identification of prognostically relevant genes through univariate cytochrome C oxidase analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regularization. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed for each prognostic-related gene and an analysis of the immune characteristics of patients stratified by their risk scores was undertaken. Subsequently, the potential therapeutic drugs of papillary thyroid cancer were predicted. Finally, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses were performed in papillary thyroid cancer samples to detect the expression of prognostic-related genes at the messenger ribonucleic acid and protein levels. Our research has established a necroptosis-related prognostic signature comprising C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 5, tyrosine-protein kinase receptor 3, and fibronectin type III domain containing 4 in papillary thyroid cancer. This signature is intricately linked to the tumor microenvironment of papillary thyroid cancer and holds potential in enhancing the management and prognostic prediction of thyroid cancer.