  Objectives Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) often diagnosed as advanced
with poor prognosis. The mechanisms of its pathogenesis and prognosis require
urgent elucidation. This study was performed to screen potential biomarkers
related to the occurrence, development and prognosis of LUSC to reveal unknown
physiological and pathological processes. Materials and Methods Using
bioinformatics analysis, the lung squamous cell carcinoma microarray datasets
from the GEO and TCGA databases were analyzed to identify differentially
expressed genes(DEGs). Furthermore, PPI and WGCNA network analysis were
integrated to identify the key genes closely related to the process of LUSC
development. In addition, survival analysis was performed to achieve a
prognostic model that accomplished a high level of prediction accuracy. Results
and Conclusion Eighty-five up-regulated and 39 down-regulated genes were
identified, on which functional and pathway enrichment analysis was conducted.
GO analysis demonstrated that up-regulated genes were principally enriched in
epidermal development and DNA unwinding in DNA replication. Down-regulated
genes were mainly involved in cell adhesion, signal transduction and positive
regulation of inflammatory response. After PPI and WGCNA network analysis,
eight genes, including AURKA, RAD51, TTK, AURKB, CCNA2, TPX2, KPNA2 and KIF23,
have been found to play a vital role in LUSC development. The prognostic model
contained 20 genes, 18 of which were detrimental to prognosis. The AUC of the
established prognostic model for predicting the survival of patients at 1, 3,
and 5 years was 0.828, 0.826 and 0.824, respectively. To conclude, this study
identified a number of biomarkers of significant interest for additional
investigation of the therapies and methods of prognosis of lung squamous cell
carcinoma.
