A pan-cancer analysis of the role of hexokinase II (HK2) in human tumors

Abstract Background:In view of the complexity of tumorigenesis, it is very important to conduct a pan-cancer expression analysis and assess its correlation with clinical prognosis and potential molecular mechanisms of gene interested. More and more evidences show that HK2 is closely related to tumors. But no pan-cancer analysis is available. The aim of this paper was to explore the potential roles of HK2 across thirty-three tumors based on the datasets of TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) and GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus). Results:HK2 is highly expressed in most tumors and related to the progression of some tumors. HK2 expression were associated with the infiltration of T follicular helper cells (Tfh) for the TCGA tumors of UVM, BRCA, BRCA-LumA, HNSC, HNSC-HPV+, and cancer-associated fibroblasts for the tumors of LGG and STAD. Conclusion:Our first pan-cancer analyses of HK2 indicated statistical correlations of HK2 expression with clinical prognosis and immune cell infiltration across multiple tumors, which help to understand the role of HK2 in tumorigenesis from the perspective of clinical tumor samples.