Sooryanarayana Varambally

Genomics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project has led to the comprehensive molecular characterization of multiple cancer types. The large sample numbers in TCGA offer an excellent opportunity to address questions associated with tumo heterogeneity. Exploration of the data by cancer researchers and clinicians is imperative to unearth novel therapeutic/diagnostic biomarkers. Various computational tools have been developed to aid researchers in carrying out specific TCGA data analyses; however there is need for resources to facilitate the study of gene expression variations and survival associations across tumors. Here, we report UALCAN, an easy to use, interactive web-portal to perform to in-depth analyses of TCGA gene expression data. UALCAN uses TCGA level 3 RNA-seq and clinical data from 31 cancer types. The portal's user-friendly features allow to perform: 1) analyze relative expression of a query gene(s) across tumor and normal samples, as well as in various tumor sub-groups based on individual cancer stages, tumor grade, race, body weight or other clinicopathologic features, 2) estimate the effect of gene expression level and clinicopathologic features on patient survival; and 3) identify the top over- and under-expressed (up and down-regulated) genes in individual cancer types. This resource serves as a platform for in silico validation of target genes and for identifying tumor sub-group specific candidate biomarkers. Thus, UALCAN web-portal could be extremely helpful in accelerating cancer research. UALCAN is publicly available at http://ualcan.path.uab.edu.

Recurrent chromosomal rearrangements have not been well characterized in common carcinomas. We used a bioinformatics approach to discover candidate oncogenic chromosomal aberrations on the basis of outlier gene expression. Two ETS transcription factors, ERG and ETV1, were identified as outliers in prostate cancer. We identified recurrent gene fusions of the 5' untranslated region of TMPRSS2 to ERG or ETV1 in prostate cancer tissues with outlier expression. By using fluorescence in situ hybridization, we demonstrated that 23 of 29 prostate cancer samples harbor rearrangements in ERG or ETV1. Cell line experiments suggest that the androgen-responsive promoter elements of TMPRSS2 mediate the overexpression of ETS family members in prostate cancer. These results have implications in the development of carcinomas and the molecular diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Cancer genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiling has generated extensive data that necessitate the development of tools for its analysis and dissemination. We developed UALCAN to provide a portal for easy exploring, analyzing, and visualizing these data, allowing users to integrate the data to better understand the gene, proteins, and pathways perturbed in cancer and make discoveries. UALCAN web portal enables analyzing and delivering cancer transcriptome, proteomics, and patient survival data to the cancer research community. With data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, UALCAN has enabled users to evaluate protein-coding gene expression and its impact on patient survival across 33 types of cancers. The web portal has been used extensively since its release and received immense popularity, underlined by its usage from cancer researchers in more than 100 countries. The present manuscript highlights the task we have undertaken and updates that we have made to UALCAN since its release in 2017. Extensive user feedback motivated us to expand the resource by including data on a) microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and promoter DNA methylation from TCGA and b) mass spectrometry-based proteomics from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC). UALCAN provides easy access to pre-computed, tumor subgroup-based gene/protein expression, promoter DNA methylation status, and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. It also provides new visualization features to comprehend and integrate observations and aids in generating hypotheses for testing. UALCAN is accessible at http://ualcan.path.uab.edu.