KIF4A and STIL act as pan-cancer diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers by bioinformatics analysis and verifcation in osteosarcoma

Abstract Background: Cancer is a disease of abnormal cell proliferation that is caused by aberrantly expressed cancer-related genes. Transcriptome analysis to identify differential gene expression between tumors and paring normal tissue can help to reveal the key process of cell proliferation in cancer. Methods: By screening RNA-seq data covering twelve types of cancer and their paring normal tissue from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA), we identified twenty-eight cell-cycle-related genes that were overexpressed in no less than ten types of cancers. Results: Among them, kinesin family member 4A (KIF4A) and stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (STIL) exhibited upregulated expression in eleven types of cancer, making them promising pan-cancer diagnostic markers. The high expression of either KIF4A or STIL indicates poor prognosis in four types of cancer. We further conducted the expression of KIF4A and STIL by immunohistochemistry（IHC） in osteosarcoma（OS） and paring normal tissue samples from a cohort of 57 osteosarcoma patients,which confirmed the results of bioinformatics analysis . Conclusions: KIF4A and STIL can serve as pan-cancer diagnostic and prognostic markers. The fact that they both function in the mitotic chromosome segregation process further emphasizes the importance of mitosis regulation and chromosome stability in carcinogenesis and cancer development.