KIT performed as a driver gene candidate affecting the survival status of patients with stomach adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Stomach adenocarcinoma is estimated to cause 10,000 deaths in the US in 2016 and is the third most deadly cancer in China. We aim to identify the proteins and the genes that have impact on the prognosis of patients with stomach adenocarcinoma. Data of patients with stomach adenocarcinoma were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Proteins whose expression levels were highly correlated with survival status of patients were figured out. The expression levels of their mRNAs and their roles in the pathway were used to determine the driver gene candidates. The effects of mutations on the genes encoding KIT on mRNA expressions were carried. Ten antibodies were figured out to have significant correlation with stomach cancer prognosis. The coefficients of COXPH models matches their roles in the previous studies. The expression levels of mRNAs versus proteins suggested that KIT might act as a driver gene, which was also the central in the pathway of other selected proteins. The missense mutations on the gene encoding KIT led to the low expression of its mRNAs and there were much fewer nonsense mutations compared with other genes. It suggested that the important role of KIT as an oncogene in the progression of cancer, as well as a tyrosine-protein kinase during the normal activity. Ten antibodies, corresponding to fifteen proteins, were highly correlated with patients’ survival time, within which KIT played a critical roles. It suggested that KIT might be used as biomarker or as target of cancer therapies.