Nuclear receptor profiling for subtype classification and as prognostic markers in 33 cancer types

Nuclear receptors, a group of 48 transcription factors that regulate a multitude of processes within our body, have long been employed as diagnostic markers or therapeutic targets in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and acute promyelocytic leukemia. Unfortunately, no comprehensive investigation has been conducted on their significance in other cancer types. The current study aimed to explore novel diagnostic markers by classifying nuclear receptors according to their expression patterns based on transcriptome data from The Cancer Genome Atlas on 10,071 tumor samples across 33 cancer types and investigating their association with genetic mutations, histological types, and prognosis. Our analysis showed that 21 cancers, including breast cancer, can be classified into distinct clusters based on their nuclear receptor expression profiles. Moreover, significant differences in overall survival were observed in 9 of the 21 cancer types. Overall, the results of this study indicate that previously overlooked nuclear receptors, such as NR0B1 in lung adenocarcinoma, may prove beneficial in the diagnosis of several cancers.