Integrative meta-analysis of gene expression profiles identifies FEN1 and ENDOU as potential diagnostic biomarkers for cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Cervical carcinoma is a global public health burden. Given that it is usually asymptomatic at potentially curative stages, the development of clinically accurate tests is critical for early detection and individual risk stratification. The present study performed an integrative meta-analysis of the transcriptomes from 10 cervical carcinoma cohorts, with the aim of identifying biomarkers that are associated with malignant transformation of cervical epithelium, and establish their clinical applicability. From among the top ranked differentially expressed genes, flap structure-specific endonuclease 1 (FEN1) and poly (U)-specific endoribonuclease (ENDOU) were selected for further validation, and their clinical applicability was assessed using immunohistochemically stained microarrays comprising 110 tissue cores, using p16 and Ki67 staining as the comparator tests. The results demonstrated that FEN1 expression was significantly upregulated in 65% of tumor specimens (P=0.0001), with no detectable expression in the non-tumor tissues. Furthermore, its expression was significantly associated with Ki67 staining in tumor samples (P