Integrated Bioinformatics Approach for Disclosing Autophagy Pathway as a Therapeutic Target in Advanced KRAS Mutated/Positive Lung Adenocarcinoma

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, accounting for 1.8 million deaths (18%). Nearly 80%-85% of lung cancer cases are non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). One of the most frequent genetic mutations in NSCLC is the Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Oncogene Homolog (KRAS) gene mutation. In recent years, autophagy has drawn substantial attention as a potential pathway that can be targeted in cancer driven by KRAS gene mutation to efficiently improve the therapeutic profile of different treatments.

In this study, we have investigated the potential of targeting the autophagy pathway as a treatment approach in advanced KRAS-mutated lung adenocarcinoma using gene expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Lung Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-LUAD) project.

Compared to KRAS wild-type lung adenocarcinoma, there were found 11 differentially expressed autophagy-related genes (DEARGs), with 5 upregulated and 6 downregulated DEARGs (threshold of adjusted p-value <0.05).

These DEARGs can be investigated as potential genes that can be targeted by different autophagy inhibitors.