Significant pathway and biomarker identification of pancreatic cancer associated lung cancer

Pancreatic Cancer (PC) is the seventh leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide and one of the deadliest malignant neoplasms. It is difficult to diagnose at an early stage. Lung Cancer (LC) is the second most common cancer and a malignant tumor which spreads into nearby tissues through metastasis. One of the major common risk factors between PC and LC is smoking. Since both PC and LC are malignant they may be associated with one another. The main purpose of this research was to find genetic linkage and association between PC and LC through a bioinformatics approach. We analyzed both gene expression datasets and compared the significant genetic markers to find shared genes between the two cancers. We identified 1686 common significant genes between PC and LC, which is 33.2% of both gene datasets. The enrichment analysis disclosed the biological roles of the selected common genes and revealed the pathways that were mostly associated with the common biomarkers. Using the common genes of both cancers we constructed a PPI network and identified 10 significant hub genes (TP53, AKT1, EGFR, TNF, IL6, ALB, EGF, MYC, VEGFA, and GAPDH) based on their connectivity and degree values. In drug target analysis, a drug compound ‘Capsaicin CTD 00005570’ was identified to be associated with all significant hub genes. This drug compound could be useful for treatment of the patient who suffers simultaneously from both cancers. Thus this study identified genetic linkage and elemental functional association between PC and LC, and may help in the development of future medications for patients with both PC and LC