Multi-cancer computational analysis reveals invasion-associated variant of desmoplastic reaction involving INHBA, THBS2 and COL11A1

Abstract

Background: Despite extensive research, the details of the biological mechanisms by which cancer cells acquire motility and invasiveness are largely unknown. This study identifies an invasion associated gene signature shedding light on these mechanisms.

Methods: We analyze data from multiple cancers using a novel computational method identifying sets of genes whose coordinated overexpression indicates the presence of a particular phenotype, in this case high-stage cancer.

Results: We conclude that there is one shared "core" metastasis-associated gene expression signature corresponding to a specific variant of stromal desmoplastic reaction, present in a large subset of samples that have exceeded a threshold of invasive transition specific to each cancer, indicating that the corresponding biological mechanism is triggered at that point. For example this threshold is reached at stage IIIc in ovarian cancer and at stage II in colorectal cancer. Therefore, its presence indicates that the corresponding stage has been reached. It has several features, such as coordinated overexpression of particular collagens, mainly COL11A1 and other genes, mainly THBS2 and INHBA. The composition of the overexpressed genes indicates invasion-facilitating altered proteolysis in the extracellular matrix. The prominent presence in the signature of INHBA in all cancers strongly suggests a biological mechanism centered on activin A induced TGF-β signaling, because activin A is a member of the TGF-β superfamily consisting of an INHBA homodimer. Furthermore, we establish that the signature is predictive of neoadjuvant therapy response in at least one breast cancer data set.

Conclusions: Therefore, these results can be used for developing high specificity biomarkers sensing cancer invasion and predicting response to neoadjuvant therapy, as well as potential multi-cancer metastasis inhibiting therapeutics targeting the corresponding biological mechanism.

Figure 1

Evaluation of the EVA metric for gene COL11A1 in the TCGA ovarian cancer data set.

Figure 2

Scatter plots confirming coexpression of INHBA, THBS2, COL11A1 in cancerous but not healthy data sets. The expression of COL11A1 is color-coded). As shown, COL11A1 is consistently coexpressed with INHBA and THBS2 in cancerous, but not in noncancerous samples, two of which are shown on the right side.

Figure 3

Example of a synergistic pair of genes in two ovarian cancer data sets.