Increased FAM72B expression in breast cancer and association of its expression with poor prognosis and genes related to cell proliferation

Evidence indicates that the FAM72 gene family may play oncogenic roles in multiple cancers. This study aimed to investigate alterations in the expression of the FAM72B gene (a member of the FAM72 gene family) across various common cancers (pan-cancer), with particular emphasis on breast cancer. Additionally, the study examined the correlation between FAM72B expression levels and patient survival. Differential expression of FAM72B in various cancers was investigated based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data. The association of FAM72B level with patient mortality was examined using TCGA clinical data, with univariate Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier curves. Using the co-expression network, potential pathways related to FAM72B were identified. Next, the expression level of FAM72B in breast cancer (BC) samples and its association with genes related to cell proliferation were examined using RT-qPCR. A significant increase in FAM72B gene expression level was observed in bladder, breast, colorectal, head and neck, endometrial, liver, various lung, kidney, and stomach cancers. Our results showed that increased FAM72B gene expression was significantly associated with poor prognosis in bladder, breast, colorectal, kidney, liver, lung, and endometrial cancers. The co-expression network revealed that FAM72B expression was correlated with genes involved in cell proliferation, including CDK1 and CCNB1. RT-qPCR results also showed that FAM72B expression was higher in BC samples than in adjacent normal tissue. Additionally, the expression levels of CDK1 and CCNB1 were significantly correlated with FAM72B expression in the samples evaluated. This study found that the FAM72B gene was overexpressed in prevalent cancers and could be associated with poor patient prognosis and pathways related to cell proliferation. Our findings suggest that the FAM72B level may have oncogenic potential across multiple cancer types and could be considered a prognostic biomarker.