Bioinformatics analysis of the expression of HOXC13 and its role in the prognosis of breast cancer

Abstract

The homeobox (HOX) genes, a class of transcription factors, are known to promote embryonic development and induce tumor formation. To date, the HOXA and HOXB gene families have been reported to be associated with breast cancer. However, the expression and exact role of homeobox C13 (<i>HOXC13</i>) in breast cancer has not yet been investigated. In the present study, the <i>HOXC13</i> expression in human breast cancer was evaluated using the Oncomine database and Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). Next, the Gene expression-based Outcome for Breast cancer online database, cBioportal, University of California Santa Cruz Xena browser and bc-GenExMinerv were used to explore the specific expression of <i>HOXC13</i> in breast cancer. The methylation and mutation status of <i>HOXC13</i> in breast cancer was then validated using the CCLE and cBioportal databases. Finally, the co-expression of HOX transcript antisense RNA (<i>HOTAIR</i>) and <i>HOXC13</i> in breast cancer were analyzed and their impact on clinical prognosis determined. It was found that the expression of <i>HOXC13</i> was high in breast cancer compared with other types of cancer, such as gastric cancer and colon cancer. Following co-expression analysis, a significant positive association was identified between <i>HOTAIR</i> and <i>HOXC13</i>. An association between <i>HOTAIR</i> and <i>HOXC13</i>, and lymph node and distant metastasis recurrence was also revealed during the development of breast cancer. Of note, survival analysis showed that high expression of <i>HOTAIR</i> and <i>HOXC13</i> predicted poor prognosis. These findings revealed that <i>HOXC13</i> plays an important role in the progression of breast cancer. However, the specific mechanism needs to be confirmed by subsequent experiments.