Expression and prognosis analyses of forkhead box A (FOXA) family in human lung cancer

Despite advances in early diagnosis and treatment, cancer still remains the major reason of mortality worldwide. The forkhead box A (FOXA) family is reported to participate in diverse human diseases. However, little is known about their expression and prognostic values in human lung cancer. Herein, we conducted a detailed cancer vs. normal analysis. The mRNA expression levels of FOXA family in numerous kind of cancers, including lung cancer, were analyzed using the Oncomine and GEPIA database. We observed that the mRNA expression levels of FOXA1, and FOXA3 were all increased while FOXA2 were decreased in most cancers compared with normal tissues, especially in lung cancer. Moreover, the expression levels of FOXA1, and FOXA3 are also highly expressed, while FOXA2 were decreased in almost all cancer cell lines, particularly in lung cancer cell lines, analyzing by Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and EMBL-EBI databases. Furthermore, the LinkedOmics database was used to evaluate the prognostic values, indicating that higher expression of FOXA1, FOXA3 indicated a poor overall survival (OS), while increased FOXA2 revealed a better OS in lung cancer. To conclusion, FOXA family showed significant expression differences between cancer and normal tissues, especially lung cancer, and FOXA1, FOXA3 could be promising prognostic biomarkers for lung cancer. •Increased expression of FOXA1 and FOXA3 in LC tissues might play an important role in LC oncogenesis;•High FOXA1 and FOXA3 expression could also serve as a molecular marker to identify high-risk subgroups of patients with LC;•Transcriptional FOXA3 was a total novel prognostic markers for the improvement of lung cancer survival and prognostic accuracy.