Identification of Common Tumor Signatures Based on Gene Set Enrichment Analysis

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wang, Xiaosheng

Affiliations: Biometric Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA

Note: [] Corresponding author: Xiaosheng Wang, Biometric Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. Tel.: +1 301 451 5907; E-mail: xiaosheng.wang@nih.gov

Abstract: The identification of common tumor signatures can discover the shared molecular mechanisms underlying tumorgenesis whereby we can prevent and treat tumors by a system intervention. We identified tumor-associated signatures including pathways, transcription factors, microRNAs and gene ontology categories by analyzing gene sets for differential expression between normal vs. tumor phenotypes classes in various tumor gene expression datasets. We obtained the common tumor signatures based on their identified frequencies for different tumor types. Some shared signatures important for various tumor types were uncovered and discussed. We proposed that the interventions aiming at both the shared tumor signatures and the tissue-specific tumor signatures might be a potential approach to overcoming cancer.

Keywords: Tumor, gene expression profiling, gene set enrichment analysis, bioinformatics

DOI: 10.3233/ISB-2012-0440

Journal: In Silico Biology, vol. 11, no. 1-2, pp. 1-10, 2012