HER-2 positive breast cancer has a high risk of for relapse, metastasis and drug resistance, and is related to a poor prognosis. Thus, the study objective was to determine a target gene and explore the associated molecular mechanisms in HER-2 positive breast cancer.
Three RNA expression profiles were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using R software. A Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network was constructed and hub genes were determined. Subsequently, the relationship between clinical parameters and hub genes was examined to screen target gene. Next, DNA methylation and genomic alterations of the target gene were evaluated. To further explore potential molecular mechanisms, genes co-expressed with the target gene were performed functional enrichment analysis Results: The differential expression analysis revealed 217 DEGs in HER-2 positive breast cancer tissues compared to normal breast tissues. RRM2 was the only hub gene closely associated with lymphatic metastasis and prognosis in HER-2 positive breast cancer. Additionally, RRM2 was frequently often amplified and negatively associated with the methylation level. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the co-expression genes were mainly involved in cell cycle.
The present study identified RRM2 as a target gene associated with the initiation, progression and prognosis of HER-2 positive breast cancer, which may contribute to provide a new biomarker and therapeutic target.

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

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