Analysis of HSD11B2 as a prognostic marker in Melanoma via TCGA data mining

Background: Hydroxysteroid 11-Beta Dehydrogenase 2 (HSD11B2) expression has been reported to be present in melanoma. We investigated the association of HSD11B2 with melanoma using publicly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Methods: : The relationship between clinical pathologic features and HSD11B2 were analysed via Wilcoxon signed-rank test and logistic regression. Clinicopathologic characteristics associated with overall survival in melanoma patients were calculated using Cox regression and the Kaplan-Meier method. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and gene co-association of HSD11B2 were performed using TCGA data set. Results: : Reduced HSD11B2 expression was significantly lower in melanoma patients compared to normal patients ( p value = 3.004e-122) and also associated with lower survivability. low HSD11B2 expression in melanoma was also significantly associated with cancer stages T ( p value = 0.002) and N ( p value < 0.001) and age ( p value = 0.003). Genes TFCP2L1, PRR15L, ATP6V1B1, C9orf152, AC009948.1, AL391244.1, WDCP, HNRNPCP2 and GTF2E1 were all shown to be co-associated with changes in HSD1B2 expression. Multiple signalling pathway including cytosolic DNA sensing pathway, JAK STAT signalling pathway, NOD like receptor signalling pathway, T cell receptor signalling pathway and Toll like receptor signalling pathway were differentially enriched in low HSD11B2 expression phenotype. Conclusion: Our study revealed that HSD11B2 expression is closely associated with melanoma development and age, as well as multiple cancer related genes and pathways, thus highlighting HSD11B2 as a potential therapeutic marker of melanoma.