From COPD and asthma to lung cancer: potential candidate genes and their associated biological pathways for the incidence risk of lung cancer

Lung cancer (LC) is the second most prevalent cancer globally. Both genetic and environmental factors significantly contribute to the onset and progression of various respiratory diseases. Notably, conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been reported to increase the risk of LC. This study aims to identify the shared genes and biological pathways in patients with LC/COPD and LC/asthma to enhance our understanding of the progression of LC from other shared pulmonary disorders. In this study, nine microarray datasets (three for asthma, four for LC, and two for COPD) were selected from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. These datasets were analyzed to explore differentially and shared expressed genes (LC/asthma/COPD), as well as unique and shared biological pathways involved in LC/asthma and LC/COPD patients. The analysis included nine datasets comprising 547 individuals. Our findings, serving as hypothesis-generating insights, revealed 46 potential candidate genes capable of predicting the incidence risk of LC from asthma, 23 from COPD, and five shared genes among LC, asthma, and COPD. Additionally, we identified 28 shared biological pathways between LC and asthma and 22 in LC/COPD patients. This study suggests that it may be possible to predict the incidence risk of LC from asthma and COPD by examining specific and shared essential genes and biological pathways between LC/COPD and LC/asthma. Further investigation into the significance of these key genes in predicting LC is warranted.