BIOINFORMATICS ANALYSIS OF MERKEL CELL CARCINOMA TO IDENTIFY CRITICAL GENES AND THEIR VALIDATION

Abstract

Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) is a destructive form of neuroendocrine carcinoma that represents the 2nd highest cause of skin cancer related deaths despite being a relatively rare form of cancer. Different risk factors have been associated with MCC such as advancement age, immunosuppression, and ultraviolet light exposure, polyomavirus infection and a current, concurrent or previous diagnosis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL). However, the exact mechanism that leads to MCC and its inherent biology is yet to be fully researched and explored. The current treatments for MCC are a combination of surgery and radiation or chemo-radiation. So far, only two drugs have been approved by FDA for the treatment of MCC, with both drugs being immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, the drug approval from FDA was accelerated based on promising results from a relatively small number of patients, which means that the more research and trials are undergoing currently considering the fact that a very small cohort was used for clinical trials. Presently there are no biomarkers indicative of MCC and additional research is essential. With the advent of bioinformatics and microarray technology, in silico approaches pertaining to ‘omics’ data analysis, shall allow identification of hub genes and miRNA to broaden our understanding of MCC biology and their clinical utility.