Abstract

AIM: This study is aimed to elicit the possible correlation between breast and colon cancer from molecular prospective by analyzing and comparing pathway-based biomarkers. BACKGROUND: Breast and colon cancer are known to be frequent causes of morbidity and mortality in men and women around the world. There is some evidence that while the incident of breast cancer in young women is high, it is reported lower in the aged women. In fact, aged women are more prone to colorectal cancer than older men. . In addition, many studies showed that several biomarkers are common among these malignancies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The genes were retrieved and compared from KEGG database and WikiPathway, and subsequently, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and analyzed using Cytoscape v:3.2.1 software and related algorithms. RESULTS: More than forty common genes were identified among these malignancies; however, by pathways comparison, twenty genes are related to both breast and colon cancer. Centrality and cluster screening identified hub genes, including SMAD2, SMAD3, (SMAD4, MYC), JUN, BAD, TP53. These seven genes are enriched in regulation of transforming growth factor beta receptor signaling pathway, positive regulation of Rac protein signal transduction, positive regulation of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization involved in apoptotic signaling pathway, and positive regulation of mitotic metaphase/anaphase transition respectively. CONCLUSION: As there are numerous genes frequent between colorectal cancer and breast cancer, there may be a common molecular origin for these malignancies occurrences. It seems that breast cancer in females interferes with the rate of colorectal cancer incidence.