Comprehensive Bioinformatics Investigation of RAD51C in Cervical Cancer: Expression, Prognostic Significance, DNA methylation, Immune Infiltration, Immune Checkpoint Correlation, and Functional Network Analysis

Background RAD51C is a key homologous recombination DNA repair gene implicated in several human cancers. However, its molecular and immunological significance in cervical cancer remains poorly understood. This study investigated the expression, prognostic value, immune associations, and biological functions of RAD51C in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) using integrated bioinformatics approaches. Methods Publicly available databases were used to evaluate RAD51C expression, survival, genomic alterations, immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint gene correlations, co-expression networks, and functional enrichment. Results RAD51C was significantly overexpressed in CESC compared with normal cervical tissues. High RAD51C expression was not significantly associated with overall survival (HR = 0.80, p  = 0.34), and genomic alterations were infrequent (1.6%) with no significant impact on patient survival. Immune infiltration analysis showed positive correlations between RAD51C expression and CD8⁺ T cells, cytotoxic T cells, and M2 macrophages, while a negative correlation was observed with CD4⁺ effector memory T cells. No significant correlations were found between RAD51C and the immune checkpoint genes PDCD1, CD274, CTLA4 , and LAG3 . Co-expression and functional enrichment analyses indicated that RAD51C is involved in DNA repair, DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cell-cycle regulation. Conclusion RAD51C is significantly upregulated in cervical cancer and is closely associated with pathways involved in genomic stability, cell-cycle progression, and selective immune cell infiltration. These findings suggest that RAD51C may contribute to cervical cancer progression and warrants further experimental investigation as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target.