NCEH1 may be a prognostic biomarker for pancreatic cancer.

Neutral Cholesterol Ester Hydrolase 1 (NCEH1) is an enzyme involved in ether lipid metabolism, and the gene is overexpressed in a variety of tumors. However, its role in pancreatic cancer remains unknown. Therefore, we compared the gene transcription data of healthy and pancreatic cancer tissues using the Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression databases. R software (v3.6.1) was used for the differential, clinicopathological correlation, and survival analyses. We found that was overexpressed in pancreatic cancer tissues compared with that in healthy tissues ( = 1.732 e-50), and that its expression level was related to lymph node metastasis. High expression was associated with poor overall survival ( = 0.002). Using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, we determined that is an independent risk factor for pancreatic cancer. Gene set enrichment analysis identified that overexpression is prominent in cell-cell adhesion junctions, pancreatic cancer, cancer-associated pathways, prostate cancer, and chronic myeloid leukemia. In contrast, low expression correlated to high oxidative phosphorylation. Thus, we conclude that may be a prognostic biomarker for pancreatic cancer.