OSAnalyzer: A Bioinformatics Tool for the Analysis of Gene Polymorphisms Enriched with Clinical Outcomes.
BACKGROUND
The identification of biomarkers for the estimation of cancer patients' survival is a crucial problem in modern oncology. Recently, the Affymetrix DMET (Drug Metabolizing Enzymes and Transporters) microarray platform has offered the possibility to determine the ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) gene variants of a patient and to correlate them with drug-dependent adverse events. Therefore, the analysis of survival distribution of patients starting from their profile obtained using DMET data may reveal important information to clinicians about possible correlations among drug response, survival rate, and gene variants.


METHODS
In order to provide support to this analysis we developed OSAnalyzer, a software tool able to compute the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of cancer patients and evaluate their association with ADME gene variants.


RESULTS
The tool is able to perform an automatic analysis of DMET data enriched with survival events. Moreover, results are ranked according to statistical significance obtained by comparing the area under the curves that is computed by using the log-rank test, allowing a quick and easy analysis and visualization of high-throughput data.


CONCLUSIONS
Finally, we present a case study to highlight the usefulness of OSAnalyzer when analyzing a large cohort of patients.
Department of Medical and Surgical Science, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. agapito@unicz.it.
Giuseppe
G
Agapito
Department of Experimental Medicine and Clinic, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. cirino.botta@gmail.com.
Cirino
C
Botta
Department of Medical and Surgical Science, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. hguzzi@unicz.it.
Pietro Hiram
PH
Guzzi
ISN-CNR, Roccelletta di Borgia, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. mariamena.arbitrio@cnr.it.
Mariamena
M
Arbitrio
Department of Experimental Medicine and Clinic, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. teresadm@unicz.it.
Maria Teresa
MT
Di Martino
Department of Experimental Medicine and Clinic, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. tassone@unicz.it.
Pierfrancesco
P
Tassone
Department of Experimental Medicine and Clinic, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. tagliaferri@unicz.it.
Pierosandro
P
Tagliaferri
Department of Medical and Surgical Science, University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro, Catanzaro 88100, Italy. cannataro@unicz.it.
Mario
M
Cannataro
ADME genes; genotyping microarrays; overall survival; pharmacogenomics; progression-free survival
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