Alternative polyadenylation shapes the molecular and clinical features of lung adenocarcinoma

Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a major mechanism of post-transcriptional regulation that affects mRNA stability, localization and translation efficiency. Previous pan-cancer studies have revealed that APA is frequently disrupted in cancer and is associated with patient outcomes. Yet, little is known about cancer type-specific APA alterations. Here, we integrated RNA-sequencing data from a Korean cohort (GEO: GSE40419) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to comprehensively analyze APA alterations in lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs). Comparing expression levels of core genes involved in polyadenylation, we find that overall, the set of 28 of 31 genes are upregulated, with CSTF2 particularly upregulated. We observed broad and recurrent APA changes in LUAD growth-promoting genes. In addition, we find enrichment of APA events in genes associated with known LUAD pathways and an increased heterogeneity in polyadenylation (polyA) site usage of proliferation-associated genes. Upon further investigation, we report smoking-specific APA changes are also highly relevant to LUAD development. Overall, our in-depth analysis reveals APA as an important driver for the molecular and clinical features of lung adenocarcinoma.