PLEK2 as a promising pan-cancer biomarker:insights from its expression profile

ZHANG Yuanci; PANG Maogui; MIAO Ge; WANG Haojia; DU Shuya; WANG Junshu; HUANG Xiaoyu; JI Songtao; SUN Jingjing; LU Yuanyuan; ZHAO Xiaodi; WANG Xin

doi:10.13276/j.issn.2097-1656.2026.06.002

Abstract：Objective To systematically analyze the expression characteristics and clinical significance of the PLEK2 gene in pan-cancer based on public biological databases using bioinformatics methods.Methods Datasets were extracted from the TCGA database,supplemented by the GTEx and STRING databases.The GEPIA2 and UALCAN platforms were used to analyze the distribution of the PLEK2 gene across human organs,compare its expression differences between various tumor tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues,evaluate the relationship between its expression level and patient prognosis,and explore its correlation with clinical features in pan-cancer patients.Furthermore,the TIMER 2.0 database was employed to analyze the relationship between PLEK2 expression and immune cell infiltration levels in the tumor immune microenvironment,and the LinkedOmics database was used to screen genes positively correlated with PLEK2 expression.Results Compared with normal tissues,PLEK2 expression was significantly upregulated in multiple tumor tissues(P＜0.05).Survival analysis showed that in several cancer types,patients with high PLEK2 expression had a significantly lower 5-year survival rate than those with low PLEK2 expression.Immune infiltration analysis indicated that PLEK2 expression was correlated with CD8+T cell infiltration levels.Protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed that PLEK2 interacted with 10 proteins.Conclusion PLEK2 is involved in the development and progression of multiple tumors and the regulation of the immune microenvironment.Its high expression suggests poor patient prognosis,indicating its potential as a pan-cancer biomarker for early screening and clinical monitoring.