BACKGROUND

Globally, breast cancer is one of the most common cancers with poor prognosis. The Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway genes maintain genome stability and play important roles in human diseases, including cancer. However, the prognostic values and biological roles of FA pathway genes in breast cancer have not been clarified. This study aims to investigate the potential of FA pathway genes as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in breast cancer.

METHODS

In this study, the Oncomine Cancer Microarray (ONCOMINE), University of ALabama at Birmingham Cancer (UALCAN), Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBio Cancer Genomics Portal (cBioPortal), Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), Gene Multi-Association Network Integration Algorithm (GeneMANIA), the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) databases were used to investigate the transcriptional and survival data of FA pathway genes in patients with breast cancer.

RESULTS

Most of the FA pathway genes were found to be significantly upregulated in breast cancer tissues when compared to normal tissues. Additionally, the elevated expression levels of FA pathway genes were significantly associated with poor survival outcomes in breast cancer patients. Through functional enrichment analysis, the FA pathway genes were positively associated with cell cycle and nucleoplasm and negatively correlated with signal recognition particle-dependent co-translational protein targeting to membrane and ribosome. Furthermore, the expression levels of FA pathway genes exhibited a significant positive association with immune infiltration.

CONCLUSIONS

The FA pathway genes are potential prognostic biomarkers for breast cancer and may offer effective as well as new strategies for cancer management.