Abstract
BACKGROUND: With the advent of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool in gene therapy, identification of aberrantly expressed genes is of great value across various cancer types. Since a large number of patients may benefit from molecular targeted gene therapy. The purpose of this study was to identify aberrantly expressed genes across various cancer types, analyze prospective mechanisms and their correlation with survival outcomes. RESULTS: NCAPG was highly expressed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, which includes the transcriptomes of 6,647 cancer and 647 normal tissue samples from 16 cancer types. Furthermore, a predicted NCAPG overexpression rate was also observed at the protein level in 16 tumor types. Importantly, high NCAPG level was significantly associated with unfavorable survival in various cancer types such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), breast, lung or ovarian cancer. The multivariate analyses demonstrated that NCAPG, TNM, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging were independent risk factors for mortality of patients with HCC. Moreover, functional and pathway enrichment analysis suggested that NCAPG was closely correlated with the pathways of cell cycle, cellular senescence, and mismatch repair. By weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified NCAPG as a hub gene in the turquoise module mostly related to the survival time of HCC samples. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study represents a comprehensive RNA-Seq analysis of several tumor types, revealing NCAPG as a promising molecular target. NCAPG overexpression may play important roles in carcinogenesis and progression of tumors via regulating tumor-related pathways, thereby broadening the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and highlighting the possibility of developing novel targeted therapeutics.