Differentially expressed EREG and SPP1 are independent prognostic markers in cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

AIMS: Cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most frequent malignancies of the female reproductive system. The malignant mechanism of SCC has not been totally clarified. We aimed to discover a list of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to identify the malignant mechanism of cervical SCC.

METHOD: Three expression chips (GSE7803, GSE9750, and GSE64217) were downloaded from gene expression omnibus (GEO) datasets. After standardization, 50 cervical SCC tumor tissues and 33 normal cervical tissues (NCTs) were included for DEGs and clustering analysis. RobustRankAggreg (RRA) algorithm was used to extract the overlapping DEGs. Gene function and signaling pathway analysis was implemented based on Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway databases. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis and prognostic analysis were also carried out to identify the DEGs as prognostic markers for cervical SCC.

RESULTS: Totally 100 DEGs were obtained from GSE7803, 319 DEGs from GSE9750, and 1639 DEGs from GSE64217. RRA analysis uncovered 17 upregulated DEGs and 25 downregulated DEGs. GO and KEGG analysis showed DEGs were involved in the mediation of extracellular functions, cell-cell interactions, and cell metabolism. PPI network showed a close interaction among the integrated DEGs. Prognostic analysis showed gene secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) and epiregulin (EREG) genes were independent prognostic predictors of cervical SCC.

CONCLUSION: The gene expression profile was changed in cervical SCC tumor tissues compared to NCTs. SPP1 and EREG were postulated as prognostic markers for cervical SCC, which might be potential targets for clinical therapy of cervical SCC.