Integrative analysis identified common and unique molecular signatures in hepatobiliary cancers

Abstract

Hepatobiliary cancers (HBCs) are the most aggressive and sixth most diagnosed cancers globally. Biomarkers for timely diagnosis and targeted therapy in HBCs are still limited. Considering the gap, our objective is to identify unique and overlapping molecular signatures associated with HBCs. We analyzed publicly available transcriptomic datasets on Gallbladder cancer (GBC), Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) to identify potential biomarkers using integrative systems approaches. An effective Common and Unique Molecular Signature Identification (CUMSI) approach has been developed, which contains analysis of differential gene expression (DEG), gene co-expression networks (GCN), and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) networks. Functional analysis of the DEGs unique for GBC, HCC, and ICC indicated that GBC is associated with cellular processes, HCC is associated with immune signaling pathways, and ICC is associated with lipid metabolic pathways. Our findings shows that the hub genes and pathways identified for each individual cancer type of the HBS are related with the primary function of each organ and each cancer exhibit unique expression patterns despite being part of the same organ system.