Open AccessPairwise correlation of genes involved in glucose metabolism: a potential diagnostic marker of cancer?
Author(s) -
Meena Kishore Sakharkar,
Karthic Rajamanickam,
Shaoping Ji,
Sarinder Kaur Dhillon,
Jian Yang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
genes and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.883
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1947-6027
pISSN - 1947-6019
DOI - 10.18632/genesandcancer.216
Subject(s) - gene , cancer , disease , correlation , biology , medicine , genetics , bioinformatics , pathology , geometry , mathematics
Cancer is a highly malignant disease, killing approximately 10 million people worldwide in 2020. Cancer patient survival substantially relies on early diagnosis. In this study, we evaluated whether genes involved in glucose metabolism could be used as potential diagnostic markers for cancer. In total, 127 genes were examined for their gene expression levels and pairwise gene correlations. Genes ADH1B and PDHA2 were differentially expressed in most of the 12 types of cancer and five pairs of genes exhibited consistent correlation changes (from strong correlations in normal controls to weak correlations in cancer patients) across all types of cancer. Thus, the two differentially expressed genes and five gene pairs could be potential diagnostic markers for cancer. Further preclinical and clinical studies are warranted to prove whether these genes and/or gene pairs would indeed aid in early diagnosis of cancer.