ObjectiveTo investigate the expression of transcription factor SOX11 in retinoblastoma (RB) and the relation with the genes and cellular pathways.MethodsA public data set gse59983 containing the full mRNA expression profile of cancer tissues in 76 RB patients was downloaded from the GEO Database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. According to the expression of 15 marker genes, these genes were divided into cell cycle marker genome (group 1, 26 patients), vertebral photoreceptor marker genome (group 2, 4 patients) and rod photoreceptor marker gene (group 3, 46 patients). R2 bioinformatics platform (http://r2.amc.NL) was used to analyze the gse59983 public data set. The SOX11 expression in cancer tissues of patients in 3 groups were observed and the SOX11-related genes were identified. According to the gene correlation, the clustering heat map was drawn, and the related genes and pathways of SOX11 were preliminarily analyzed by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis tool and Gene Annotation (GO) analysis method.ResultsSOX11 expression in cancer tissues of patients in group 1 was significantly higher than that of groups 2 and 3 (P＜0.001). SOX11 expression in cancer tissues of patients in group 3 was significantly higher than that in group 2 (P＜0.001). A total of 4524 genes significantly related to SOX11 expression were detected. Among them, there were 2139 positively correlated genes and 2385 negatively correlated genes. SOX11 and the 16 genes with the strongest correlation were screened and the clustering heat map was drawn. The clustering form of SOX11 and SOX11 significantly correlated genes was roughly the same as the original form. KEGG and GO analysis showed that SOX11 related genes were involved in regulating mitotic cell cycle, cell apoptosis, photoreceptor cell development, photoreceptor cell protection, etc.ConclusionThe expression of SOX11 in RB is significantly different in different types or periods. Its expression is significantly correlated with genes involved in the regulation of cell cycle.