The homeobox (HOX) genes, a class of
transcription factors, are known to promote embryonic development and induce
tumor formation. To date, the HOXA and HOXB gene families have been reported to be associated with
breast cancer. However, the expression and exact role of homeobox C13 (HOXC13) in
breast cancer has not yet been investigated. In the present study, the HOXC13 expression in human
breast cancer was evaluated using the Oncomine database and
Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). Next, the Gene expression-based Outcome for
Breast cancer online database, cBioportal, University of California Santa Cruz Xena browser and bc-GenExMinerv were used to explore the specific expression of HOXC13 in
breast cancer. The methylation and mutation status of HOXC13 in
breast cancer was then validated using the CCLE and cBioportal databases. Finally, the co-expression of HOX transcript
antisense RNA (HOTAIR) and HOXC13 in
breast cancer were analyzed and their impact on clinical prognosis determined. It was found that the expression of HOXC13 was high in
breast cancer compared with other types of
cancer, such as
gastric cancer and
colon cancer. Following co-expression analysis, a significant positive association was identified between HOTAIR and HOXC13. An association between HOTAIR and HOXC13, and lymph node and distant
metastasis recurrence was also revealed during the development of
breast cancer. Of note, survival analysis showed that high expression of HOTAIR and HOXC13 predicted poor prognosis. These findings revealed that HOXC13 plays an important role in the progression of
breast cancer. However, the specific mechanism needs to be confirmed by subsequent experiments.