Identification of the potential biomarkers for the metastasis of rectal adenocarcinoma

Rectal cancer is a common malignant tumor of the digestive tract, with a high incidence and high mortality. This study aimed to identify the potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for rectal adenocarcinoma (RAC) metastasis. The expression profiling of RAC patients with metastasis and RAC patients without metastasis was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The datasets were used to identify the genes associated with RAC metastasis. Fifty up-regulated genes and seventeen down-regulated genes were identified in the primary tumor loci of RAC metastasis compared with non-metastasis. Sixty-seven dysregulated gens were conducted to construct the protein-protein network, and CCND3 was the hub protein. The dysregulated genes were significantly enriched in pancreatic secretion, cell adhesion molecules pathways, response to vitamin D of biological process, and retinoid binding of molecular function. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results demonstrated that CCND3, AQP3, PEG10, and RAB27B had the up-regulated tendency in RAC metastasis; ADCY1 had the down-regulated tendency in RAC metastasis. CCND3, AQP3, PEG10, RAB27B, and ADCY1 might play essential roles in the metastasis process of RAC through pancreatic secretion and cell adhesion molecules pathways. The five genes could be potential diagnosis biomarkers or therapeutic targets for RAC metastasis.