Abstract
Gastric cancer (GC) represents a widespread malignancy with a poor prognosis. Hence, discovering reliable biomarkers is necessary. The cell division cycle-associated protein (CDCA) family, comprising CDCA1–8, plays a key role in tumor progression. However, whether CDCA expression has prognostic value in GC, especially stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD), has not been elucidated yet. Consequently, we conducted a multifaceted study using bioinformatic tools aimed at exploring CDCA expression levels and appraising their potential prognostic values in patients with STAD. All eight CDCAs were significantly upregulated in STAD tissues compared with healthy tissues. Elevated CDCA4/7/8 mRNA expression predicted a short overall survival, and increased CDCA7 transcriptional levels predicted a short disease-free survival. The most frequent alteration in patients with STAD was low mRNA expression. The functional enrichment analysis incorporating the gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathways showed that the cell cycle, foxO signaling pathway, and Epstein–Barr virus were relevant to the main functions of CDCAs. Finally, the immune infiltration analysis revealed a significant correlation between CDCA expression and the infiltration extent of six immunocytes. Therefore, differentially expressed CDCAs may represent potential biomarkers for the prognosis of patients with STAD that can improve survival. Furthermore, this study might offer new ideas for the design and development of immunotherapeutic drugs.
Highlights
Gastric cancer (GC) represents a widespread and malignant carcinoma with the fifth highest incidence and third highest mortality rate worldwide [1]
Overexpression of cell division cycle-associated protein (CDCA) mRNA in patients with stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD)
From DErrico’s dataset, CDCA1 mRNA expression appeared upregulated in diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma, gastric mixed adenocarcinoma, and gastric intestinal-type adenocarcinoma, for which the matching fold changes were 2.858, 4.498, and 5.515, respectively
Summary
Gastric cancer (GC) represents a widespread and malignant carcinoma with the fifth highest incidence and third highest mortality rate worldwide [1]. In 2018, over 1 million new patients and nearly 800,000 deaths occurred [1]. The number of GC cases may increase in the future because of the aging population [2]. Various molecular and histological subtypes are featured in GC and are mainly subdivided into four groups: microsatellite instability, Epstein–Barr virus, diffuse, and intestinal subtypes [3]. Since the initial detection and diagnosis of GC often occurs at an already advanced stage [4], the options for surgical treatment are often narrowed, which results in worse outcomes. Targeted therapy backed by palliative treatment and chemotherapy is envisioned to be an important complementary therapy for GC to prolong the life expectancy
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