The pan-cancer landscape presented ITGA7 as a prognostic determinant, tumor suppressor, and oncogene in multiple tumor types

Integrin α7 (ITGA7) is an extracellular matrix-binding protein. Integrins are the main type of cell adhesive molecules in mammals, playing a role in many biological pathways. Although various studies have shown correlations between ITGA7 and various types of cancer, a comprehensive study at a pan-cancer level has not yet been conducted. In this study, we investigated the function of ITGA7 in distinct tumor types using the multi-omics relevant information, then two CeRNA regulatory network was drawn to identify the ITGA7 hub regulatory RNAs. The results indicated that the expression of ITGA7 varies in different tumors. Overexpression of ITGA7 was correlated with a worse OS in BLCA, LGG, and UVM, and the downregulation of ITGA7 was related to a worse OS in PAAD. In addition, BLCA, and UVM showed poor PFS in association with ITGA7 overexpression, and PAAD, SARC, and THCA indicated poor PFS in correlation with ITGA7 under expression. Further analyses of ITGA7 gene alteration data showed that ITGA7 amplifications may have an impact on Kidney Chromophobe prognosis. In 20 types of tumors, ITGA7 expression was linked to cancer-associated fibroblast infiltration. ITGA7 expression was linked to cancer-associated fibroblast infiltration. ITGA7-Related Gene Enrichment Analysis indicated that ITGA7 expression-correlated and functional binding genes were enriched in homotypic cell-cell adhesion, focal adhesion, and ECM-receptor interaction. This pan-cancer study found that abnormal expression of ITGA7 was correlated with poor prognosis and metastasis in different types of tumors. Thus, the ITGA7 gene may prove to be a promising biomarker for the prognosis and complication prevention of different cancers.