CREM regulates the tumor immune microenvironment and predicts prognosis in thyroid carcinoma

Background: ) gene in THCA remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate CREM's expression, clinical significance, and association with the tumor immune microenvironment. Methods: Transcriptomic and clinical data from 507 THCA cases and 59 normal controls in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were analyzed. CREM expression was compared across clinical subgroups using non-parametric tests. Survival outcomes were assessed via Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis evaluated diagnostic value. Immune cell infiltration was quantified cell-type identification by estimating relative subsets of RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT). Functional enrichment Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox modeling identified CREM-associated genes, with protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks constructed via the STRING database. Results: CREM expression was significantly downregulated in THCA compared to normal tissues (P