Open Access

ARTICLE

Comprehensive analysis of the expression and prognosis for APOE in malignancies: A pan-cancer analysis

SHOUKAI YU^1,2,3,*, LINGMEI QIAN¹, JUN MA^1,*

1 Hongqiao International Institute of Medicine & Clinical Research Center, Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
2 Clinical Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
3 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, USA

* Corresponding Authors: SHOUKAI YU. Email: ; JUN MA. Email:

Oncology Research 2022, 30(1), 13-22. https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2022.026141

Received 18 August 2022; Accepted 15 November 2022; Issue published 06 December 2022

Abstract

Apolipoprotein E (APOE), a gene identified as one of the strongest genetic factors contributing to the risk determinant of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD), may also contribute to the risk of cancer. However, no pan-cancer analysis has been conducted specifically for the APOE gene. In this study, we investigated the oncogenic role of the APOE gene across cancers by GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas). Based on the available data, we found that most cancer types overexpress APOE, and clear associations exist between the expression level of APOE and prognosis in tumor patients. The expression of APOE also correlates with certain gender-associated tumors including, ovarian cancer, uterine carcinosarcoma, and breast cancer. However, there is a significant negative association between cancer-associated fibroblast infiltration levels and the expression level of APOE in testicular germ cell tumors. Moreover, acute inflammatory response and protein-activation cascade-associated functions play an important role in the functional mechanisms of APOE. The present pan-cancer analysis of APOE shows that the protein phosphorylation, DNA methylation, and genetic alterations of APOE have a significant clinical relevance for survival prognosis and immune cell infiltration. This novel pan-cancer study outlines the current understanding of APOE oncogenic roles across thirty-three cancers and highlights the complex association between AD and cancers.

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Keywords

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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