Highly expressed IFITM10 is associated with early diagnosis and T stage of gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Interferon-induced transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) are a family of proteins which functions mainly include controlling cell proliferation, promoting homotypic cell adhesion, and preventing viral infection. This research study attempts to elucidate the association between IFITM10 expression level and gastric cancer (GC). METHODS: Transcriptome sequencing and clinical information on GC and normal tissues was obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. R and related statistical packages were used to analyze the relationship between IFITM10 and survival in GC patients based on available clinical information. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed using the SPSS software package. IFITM10 expression levels in patients tissue samples were examined by qPCR and association between IFITM10 expression and clinic characteristics was analyzed using SPSS. The signaling pathway associated with IFITM10 was analyzed using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). RESULTS: In the TCGA database, IFITM10 was highly expressed in GC tissues (P<0.001). Area under the curve (AUC) value for IFITM10 in all samples was 0.813, while AUC value in the paired GC and adjacent tissues was 0.955. In the sample of surgical patients, IFITM10 was highly expressed in GC tissues (P<0.001). IFITM10 expression was higher in T1 and T2 tissues (P=0.042), male patients (P=0.031), and tissues without neuro infiltration (P=0.008). CONCLUSIONS: IFITM10 is highly expressed in GC and can serve as an early diagnostic indicator. High expression of IFITM10 was related to a low T stage in GC.