Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42226189›Full record

ArticleBMC cancer2026

Pan-cancer atlas of ITGA6 unveils its multifaceted oncogenic roles and therapeutic potential in uveal melanoma.

Chao Shi, Menghui Duan, Juan Li, Fangxia Zhang, Yiming Guo, Tu Lu, Wei Zhao, Yang Liu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC cancer, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Chao Shi *Ningxia Institute of Clinical Medicine, People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China.
Menghui Duan *Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Juan LiDepartment of Ophthalmology, People's Hospital of Pingluo County, Shizuishan, China.
Fangxia ZhangPeople's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia Medical University, Ningxia Eye Hospital, Yinchuan, China.
Yiming GuoShaanxi Eye Hospital, Xi'an People's Hospital (Xi'an Fourth Hospital), Affiliated People's Hospital of Northwest University, Xi'an, 710004, China.
Tu LuDepartment of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Wei Zhao *Ningxia Institute of Clinical Medicine, People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China. zhaowei@nxmu.edu.cn.
Yang Liu *Ningxia Institute of Clinical Medicine, People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China. herbliuyang@163.com.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation Project No.82460215Ningxia Medical University School-level Scientific Research Project No. XY2024058Ningxia Natural Science Foundation Project No.2024AAC03515Yinchuan Science and Technology Plan Project No. 2024SF006
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIntegrin alpha 6 (ITGA6) has been implicated in tumorigenesis and progression, but its roles across cancer types and its functional significance in uveal melanoma (UVM) remain incompletely characterized.

methodsWe performed an integrated pan-cancer analysis of ITGA6 expression, diagnostic performance, prognostic relevance, immune associations, pathway activity, and drug sensitivity. In addition, we evaluated its functional role in UVM using in vitro assays, including proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation experiments following ITGA6 knockdown.

resultsITGA6 was upregulated in multiple tumor types, including lung squamous cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. Diagnostic analysis indicated strong discriminatory value in several cancers, with AUC values > 0.95 in pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma and cholangiocarcinoma, and AUC values of 0.85-0.95 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, kidney chromophobe, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Survival analyses revealed that the prognostic association of ITGA6 was cancer-type dependent: higher ITGA6 expression correlated with better outcomes in skin cutaneous melanoma and uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma, but with worse outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma, lower-grade glioma, and UVM. In UVM, elevated ITGA6 expression was associated with poorer overall survival, progression-free interval, and disease-specific survival, and was positively correlated with immune infiltration and malignant functional states. ITGA6 expression showed positive correlations with all 14 functional state gene sets in UVM, with particularly strong correlations for angiogenesis, proliferation, and stemness. Pathway analyses further suggested that high ITGA6 expression was associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and TNF-α/NF-κB signaling. Drug sensitivity analyses identified several compounds that may be associated with ITGA6-related transcriptional signatures. Functional experiments showed that ITGA6 knockdown significantly inhibited proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation in UVM cells.

conclusionsThese findings suggest that ITGA6 may serve as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in selected cancers and support a tumor-promoting role for ITGA6 in UVM.

Indexed as

Biomarkers, TumorIntegrin alpha6MelanomaUveal NeoplasmsCell Line, TumorCell MovementCell ProliferationFemaleGene Expression Regulation, NeoplasticHumansPrognosisUveal MelanomaBiomarkers, TumorIntegrin alpha6ITGA6 protein, humanITGA6Pan-cancer analysisPrognostic markerTumor immune microenvironmentUveal melanoma

Identifiers

PMID42226189
PMCPMC13449813

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.