Identification of 7 key genes as biomarkers for prognosis and metastasis of gastric cancer

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most common tumors in the GI system worldwide. The refractory nature of gastric cancer and the increasing risk of recurrence and metastasis with inadequate treatment have led to numerous reports of death due to recurrence and metastasis of gastric cancer. In turn, potential mechanisms and potential biomarkers for the prevention of cancer metastasis have become a major task in clinical cancer research. Methods Differential genes (DEGs) up- and down-regulated in the GEO dataset (GSE118897) were identified, and 145 gastric cancer patients from the TCGA database were evaluated for differential gene prognosis and the impact of high expression of these genes in gastric cancer tissues on survival of gastric cancer patients was explored. Results A total of 90 DEGs were identified, of which 33 were expressed up-regulated and 57 were expressed down-regulated. By screening genes that were highly expressed in tumor tissues and had poor prognosis for gastric cancer patients, seven key genes were finally screened, including CEACAM7, THBS2, TREM2, MFAP2, BGN, MMP1 and NUSAP1. The expression levels of these genes were shown to correlate with overall survival by survival analysis. These genes are involved in biological processes such as cell proliferation and division, while being reflected in the KEGG-enriched pathway with a higher cell cycle and inflammatory response. Further analysis revealed that all seven genes can affect the proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells, with significant correlation with increasing expression, suggesting a possible significant implication for the prevention and targeted treatment of gastric cancer.