Breast and Colorectal Cancers in Women: a Meta-Analysis Driven by BioOptimatics

This meta-analysis explored genes in common between breast cancer (BC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) in women. Breast cancer and CRC are causes of significant morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Research has shown that women are underrepresented in clinical trials, especially in oncology; studying sex differences in cancer addresses this lack.

Ten GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) dataset (5 BC and 5 CRC) were used to identify genes in common. Correlated networks were constructed and analyzed using BioOptimatics methodologies, including multiple criteria optimization and minimum spanning tree.

Eighteen differentially expressed genes were identified, with such core genes as B3GNT3, CALU, CD46, DCN, DLX4, and others showing high frequencies. The study also identified 289 diseases related to core genes, further narrowed down to 37, including BC and CRC. Direct associations with BC and CRC were found for 5 genes, while 7 were linked to other cancer types.

The results of this study underscore the importance of sex differences in cancer biology and indicate that this methodology, BioOptimatics, can help in the discovery of new pathways and biomarkers for BC and CRC in women.