Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

BACKGROUND: Altered metabolism is a hallmark of cancer. However, the role of genomic changes in metabolic genes driving the tumour metabolic shift remains to be elucidated. Here, we have investigated the genomic and transcriptomic changes underlying this shift across ten different cancer types. RESULTS: A systematic pan-cancer analysis of 6538 tumour/normal samples covering ten major cancer types identified a core metabolic signature of 44 genes that exhibit high frequency somatic copy number gains/amplifications (>20 % cases) associated with increased mRNA expression (ρ > 0.3, q < 10(-3)). Prognostic classifiers using these genes were confirmed in independent datasets for breast and kidney cancers. Interestingly, this signature is strongly associated with hypoxia, with nine out of ten cancer types showing increased expression and five out of ten cancer types showing increased gain/amplification of these genes in hypoxic tumours (P ≤ 0.01). Further validation in breast and colorectal cancer cell lines highlighted squalene epoxidase, an oxygen-requiring enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis, as a driver of dysregulated metabolism and a key player in maintaining cell survival under hypoxia. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals somatic genomic alterations underlying a pan-cancer metabolic shift and suggests genomic adaptation of these genes as a survival mechanism in hypoxic tumours.

Original publication

DOI

10.1186/s13059-016-0999-8

Type

Journal article

Journal

Genome Biol

Publication Date

29/06/2016

Volume

17

Keywords

Cancer, Integrative biology, Metabolism, Tumour microenvironment, Animals, Biomarkers, Tumor, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Transformation, Neoplastic, Cluster Analysis, DNA Copy Number Variations, Disease Models, Animal, Energy Metabolism, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Genomic Instability, Genomics, Heterografts, Humans, Mice, Mutation, Neoplasms, Prognosis, Transcriptome, Tumor Hypoxia