Molecular Differences Between Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Adenocarcinoma Cervical Cancer Subtypes: Potential Prognostic Biomarkers

Abstract Purpose Cervical cancer (CC) remains a health problem. Persistent infection by high-risk papillomavirus (HR-HPV) is the main cause of this disease. The most frequently diagnosed histological types of CC are squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC). Clinically, the prognosis of both types is controversial. Our aim was to search for a molecular profile that distinguishes each histological subtype and predicts the prognosis of one or both subtypes would be of great benefit to these patients. Methods The transcriptome of CC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was analyzed using the DESeq2 package to obtain the differentially expressed genes between ADC and SCC. The differentially expressed genes obtained from the TCGA database were validated with an online, publicly available transcriptome dataset (GSE56303) containing data for a Mexican-Mestizo independent cohort. The global biological pathways involving differentially expressed genes between SSC and ADC were obtained by performing an analysis using the Webgestalt platform. In addition, associations of the differentially expressed genes with Overall Survival (OS) were assessed. Results The molecular profile of 70 altered transcripts between ADC and SCC patients from the TCGA cohort was determined. These transcripts were also deregulated in the Mexico-Mestizo cohort with the same Log2FoldChange values. The molecular pathways involved were IL-17, JAK/STAT and Ras signaling. Higher GABRB2 and TSPAN8 expression and lower TMEM40 expression were associated with better OS in the Mexican-Mestizo cohort. Conclusion We were able to detect molecular differences between the ADC and SCC subtypes of CC; however, further studies are required to define the appropriate prognostic biomarker for each histological type.