Pan-cancer analysis of the oncogenic role of the core osteosarcoma gene VCAN in human tumors.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Versican (VCAN), a member of the multifunctional glycoprotein family, is involved in various aspects of cancer progression. However, the role of VCAN in diverse cancers remains poorly defined. This research aimed to investigate the correlation between VCAN expression and the oncogenic role, as well as visualize its prognostic landscape in pan-cancer. METHODS: Raw data in regard to VCAN expression in cancer patients were acquired from GEO GeneChip public database in NCBI. Besides, we selected microarray data GSE16088 for analysis. We retrieved the genes associated with osteosarcoma (OS) from the OMIM database and identified their intersection with the core module. VCAN was suggested to be a potential marker gene for OS. Subsequently, we conducted Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) to explore gene functional enrichment. Moreover, we performed pan-cancer analysis on VCAN to gain a comprehensive understanding of its implications across various cancer types. RESULTS: The VCAN expression in the tumor tissue was higher than that in normal tissue. Elevated expression of VCAN was associated with high the tumor stage and poor long-term survival. There was a significant positive correlation between VCAN and cancer fibroblasts in all pan cancers. Moreover, FBN1 was the intersection gene of VCAN-related genes and linker genes. ANTXR1, COL5A2, CSGALNACT2, and SPARC were the target genes of VCAN genes. GSEA analysis showed that VCAN was mainly enriched in the extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: VCAN can be used as a marker molecule for the early diagnosis of OS and holds significance as a molecule in cases of OS with distant metastasis. The ECM signaling pathway may be a core pathway in OS development and distant metastasis. These findings shed new light on therapeutics of cancers.