DCBLD1 is associated with the integrin signaling pathway and has prognostic value in non-small cell lung and invasive breast carcinoma

Germline single nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of the DCBLD1 gene are associated with non-smoking cases of both non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and human papillomavirus-negative head and neck cancer. However the clinical relevance and function of DCBLD1 remain unclear. This multicenter retrospective study was designed to evaluate the prognostic value and function of DCBLD1 in the four main solid cancers: NSCLC, invasive breast carcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma and prostate adenocarcinoma. We included the following cohorts: GSE81089 NSCLC, METABRIC invasive breast carcinoma, GSE14333 colorectal adenocarcinoma, GSE70770 prostate adenocarcinoma and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Firehose Legacy cohorts of all four cancers. DCBLD1 gene expression was associated with a worse overall survival in multivariate analyses for both NSCLC cohorts (TCGA: P = 0.03 and GSE81089: P = 0.04) and both invasive breast carcinoma cohorts (TCGA: P = 0.02 and METABRIC: P < 0.001). Patients with high DCBLD1 expression showed an upregulation of the integrin signaling pathway in comparison to those with low DCBLD1 expression in the TCGA NSCLC cohort (FDR = 5.16 × 10(–14)) and TCGA invasive breast carcinoma cohort (FDR = 1.94 × 10(–05)).