Transcriptomic analysis reveals differentially expressed genes and their binding affinity with Gefitinib for lung cancer metastasis

The prevalence of lung cancer is increasing due to different risk factors with lower survival rate. Lung cancer complexity exhibits in its metastasizing ability to brain, bones, and adrenal glands. Therefore, despite the advancement of the field, the entire extent of the genetic variations associated with lung metastasis is still elusive. Patients with lung cancer metastasis show decreased effectiveness or resistance towards the available conventional drugs. In the present article, we used Genomic Data Commons (GDC) to explore the primary lung cancer genes with higher tendency to cause metastasis and aim to investigate the compatible drugs. Based on RNA-seq analysis, TFF2 and REG4 were the top two upregulated differentially expressed genes that we investigated in more details for its affinity with Gefitinib - a first generation FDA approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor drug on these two genes. Molecular docking analysis revealed that these two genes show lower binding affinity to Gefitinib, making it less effective for patients with mutation in these genes compared to patients without mutation. We believe our findings would provide better understanding of the primary mutated genes that could lead to lung cancer metastasizing to other organs and effective drug options in the clinical setting.