Cutaneous
melanoma is one of the most malignant types of
skin cancer, with an extremely poor prognosis. Immune cells infiltrated in the tumor microenvironment (TME) affects
melanoma initiation, progression, prognosis and
immunotherapy strategies in
melanoma. The potential utility of TME-related genes as a prognostic model for
melanoma and as a predictor of immunotherapeutic response merits further exploration. In this study, we determined that an immune-related gene,
protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type C (PTPRC), was positively correlated with the positive prognosis of
melanoma patients. Integration of this gene with TNM classification created a predictive model that showed better performance in determining overall survival than others. PTPRC expression was positively correlated with the levels of
immune checkpoint molecules, and PTPRC knockdown significantly enhanced the migration, invasion, and proliferation of
melanoma cells. Finally, immunohistochemical results from HPA and Real-time quantitative PCR of clinical tissues confirmed that PTPRC expression was higher in
melanoma than in normal skin. In conclusion, PTPRC served as a potential predictor of survival and response to
immunotherapy in
melanoma patients. The risk model combining the PTPRC and TNM classifications holds the potential to be a promising tool for prognostic prediction of cutaneous
melanoma. This will help in the effective clinical management of
melanoma patients.