Co-expression network analysis identifies Spleen Tyrosine Kinase (SYK) as a candidate oncogenic driver in a subset of small-cell lung cancer

Akshata R Udyavar, Megan D Hoeksema, Jonathan E Clark, Yong Zou, Zuojian Tang, Zhiguo Li, Ming Li, Heidi Chen, Alexander Statnikov, Yu Shyr, Daniel C Liebler, John Field, Rosana Eisenberg, Lourdes Estrada, Pierre P Massion, Vito Quaranta

Oncogenic mechanisms in small-cell lung cancer remain poorly understood leaving this tumor with the worst prognosis among all lung cancers. Unlike other cancer types, sequencing genomic approaches have been of limited success in small-cell lung cancer, i.e., no mutated oncogenes with potential driver characteristics have emerged, as it is the case for activating mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor in non-small-cell lung cancer. Differential gene expression analysis has also produced SCLC signatures with limited application, since they are generally not robust across datasets. Nonetheless, additional genomic approaches are warranted, due to the increasing availability of suitable small-cell lung cancer datasets. Gene co-expression network approaches are a recent and promising avenue, since they have been successful in identifying gene modules that drive phenotypic traits in several biological systems, including other cancer types.