Background and objective: ITGA3 is a cell surface adhesion protein that interacts with extracellular matrix proteins which function in cancer metastasis. We examined the relationship of pancreatic ITGA3  expression with the clinical and pathological characteristics of patients with pancreatic cancer.
Methods: Data mining was used to analyze pancreatic cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. A Chi squared test was used to evaluate correlations of ITGA3  expression with clinical and pathological parameters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ITGA3  expression. Survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to examine the prognostic value of ITGA3  expression. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was used to identify signaling pathways related to ITGA3  expression.
Results: Pancreatic expression of ITGA3  was greater in patients with pancreatic cancer than those without cancer, and was also associated with histological type, histological grade, stage, T classification, vital status, and relapse. ROC analysis indicated that ITGA3  had significant diagnostic value, in that high expression correlated with poor overall survival and relapse-free survival, especially in patients with early-stage cancer. Cox analysis indicated that high ITGA3  expression was an independent prognostic factor for pancreatic cancer. GSEA analysis identified 9 signaling pathways that were enriched in the presence of high ITGA3  expression.
Conclusion: Expression of ITGA3  can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: pancreatic cancer, diagnosis, prognosis, ITGA3 , TCGA