Identification of Gene Loci That Overlap Between Mental Disorders and Poor Prognosis of Cancers

Background: Co-morbid psychiatric disorders are common in patients with cancers, which make the treatment more difficult. Studying the connection between mental disease-related genes and the prognosis of cancers may potentially lead to novel therapeutic methods. Method: All mental disorders genes were selected from published articles. The correlations between the expression of these genes and the prognosis of different cancers were analyzed by starBase v2.0 and TIMER. The molecular functions, reactome pathways, and interactions among diverse genes were explored via the STRING tool. Results: 239 genes were identified for further survival analysis, 5 of which were overlapping genes across at least five cancer types, including RHEBL1, PDE4B, ANKRD55, EPHB2, and GIMAP7. 146 high-expression and 157 low-expression genes were found to be correlated with the unfavorable prognosis of diverse cancer types. Tight links existed among various mental disease genes. Besides, risk genes were mostly related to the dismal outcome of low-grade glioma (LGG) and kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) patients. Gene Ontology (GO) and reactome pathway analysis revealed that most genes involved in various critical molecular functions and primarily related to metabolism, signal transduction, and hemostasis. Conclusions: To explore co-expression genes between mental illnesses and cancers may aid in finding preventive strategies and therapeutic methods for high-risk populations and patients with one or more diseases.