Objective: To search new metastatic colorectal cancer-related genes.
Methods: Metastatic colorectal cancer microarray gene expression data was mined by literature profiling, which was based on the analysis of literature profiles generated by extracting the frequencies of certain terms from the abstracts in the Medline literature database. The terms are then filtered on the basis of both repetitive occurrence and co-occurrence among multiple gene entries. Clustering analysis was subsequently performed on the retained frequency values, shaping a coherent picture of the functional relationship among the heterogeneous genes identified in the long lists. The clustering result was analyzed against the result of document analysis and experiment.
Results and conclusion: Two new genes (TIAM1 and NM23H1) with potential relation to metastatic colorectal cancer were identified.