Lipid metabolism plays an essential role in carcinogenesis due to the requirements
of tumoral cells to sustain increased structural, energetic and biosynthetic precursor
demands for cell proliferation. We investigated the association between expression
of lipid metabolism-related genes and clinical outcome in intermediate-stage colon
cancer patients with the aim of identifying a metabolic profile associated with greater
malignancy and increased risk of relapse. Expression profile of 70 lipid metabolismrelated genes was determined in 77 patients with stage II colon cancer. Cox regression
analyses using c-index methodology was applied to identify a metabolic-related
signature associated to prognosis. The metabolic signature was further confirmed in
two independent validation sets of 120 patients and additionally, in a group of 264
patients from a public database. The combined analysis of these 4 genes, ABCA1,
ACSL1, AGPAT1 and SCD, constitutes a metabolic-signature (ColoLipidGene) able to
accurately stratify stage II colon cancer patients with 5-fold higher risk of relapse with
strong statistical power in the four independent groups of patients. The identification
www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget 7349 Oncotarget
of a group of 4 genes that predict survival in intermediate-stage colon cancer patients
allows delineation of a high-risk group that may benefit from adjuvant therapy, and
avoids the toxic and unnecessary chemotherapy in patients classified as low-risk group.
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