Identification of CT-Detected extramural vessel invasion related gene regulatory network

Gastric cancer (GC) was a worldwide cancer with high heterogeneity. More than 90% of GC patients in clinical practice were advanced GC, and the radical resection rate was only about 50%. For advanced gastric cancer, there is no specific targeted therapeutic regimen and the prognosis is poor. Extramural vessel invasion(EMVI) was identified as the tumor cells infiltrating through the gastric wall and into the lumen of extramural vessel. CT detected EMVI has been tested as the independent risk factor of the synchronous metastasis and long-term survival. The development of EMVI was believed as a defining characteristic of gastrointestinal cancer in advanced stage. In recent years, approaches and promising results arising from correlation of cancer imaging features with high-throughput data lead to the new research area known as radiogenomics. A significant amount of literatures in radiogenomics are promising to increase precision in diagnosis, assessment of prognosis and prediction of oncologic treatment . In the present study, we performed a CT detected EMVI related gene regulatory network analysis of differentially expressed coding genes in locally advanced GC. We screened the mRNA and their respective gene networks that were involved in the progression of CT detected EMVI. Overall design: A search of hospital's histopathologic electronic information system (HIS) was performed to identified 13 patients with locally advanced GC underwent contrast enhanced multiple detectors computed tomography (ceMDCT) and following standard D2 radical gastrectomy were included in this study from January 2018 to January 2019. The adjuvant chemotherapies of the SOX regimen were performed. Follow-ups of every 2-3 months were taken until the progression event happened within 1 year after surgery. EMVI statuses were reviewed on the preoperative ceMDCT images. According to the EMVI score system, 0-2 was identified as the EMVI negative; 3-4 was identified as positive. Of these 13 included patients, there were 7 patients with EMVI positive status and 6 with EMVI negative status. Fresh-frozen cancerous tissue samples of these 13 included patients were collected from the institutional biobank. After the quality control tests, the Illumina NextSeq system was used to sequence the gene expression of these samples.