Differential expression analysis of JAK/STAT pathway related genes in breast cancer

Aberrant activation of intracellular signaling pathways confer malignant properties on cancer cells in humans. The Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway is involved in the regulation of various aspects of the hematological system and immune regulation, and thus the JAK/STAT pathway genes are the important component of cytokine signaling. Their function as activators of various mediators of inflammation and their role in carcinogenesis puts them at important junctures with other signaling pathways. Deregulation of the immune system and chronic inflammation are two key aspects of carcinogenesis. Hence, involvement of the JAK/STAT pathway role in breast cancer has been our thrust area of research. Our studies included the analysis of expression level variations of JAK/STAT pathway genes related to various subsets of breast cancer such as invasive (or infiltrating) ductal carcinoma (IDC), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), tubular carcinoma (TC) using Oncomine web resource. Thus for meta analysis, differential expression datasets of breast cancer and normal breast tissue were retrieved based on statistical parameters. False discovery rate limits the data mining efficiency, and thus we defined the P value <0.05 and fold change >2 as a threshold. Functional enrichment analysis based on gene ontology (GO) and network analysis was performed to assess the differentially expressed genes (DEG) hubness based on centrality parameters. The present findings suggest that differentially expressed genes and their role in abrogated pathways in different breast cancers would be the targets for diagnostic and prognostic approaches.