ArticleJMIR cancer2020
Expression of Genes Related to Lipid Handling and the Obesity Paradox in Melanoma: Database Analysis.
Article in JMIR cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- FABP4 in lipid metabolism and the tumor microenvironment: mechanisms and therapeutic potential.Lipids in health and disease · 2025Review
- Cutaneous Melanoma in the Context of Aging.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
- Analysis of Serum Exosome Metabolites Identifies Potential Biomarkers for Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Metabolites · 2024Article
- New Insights into the Link Between Melanoma and Obesity.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Analysis of gene expression levels and their impact on survival in 31 cancer-types patients identifies novel prognostic markers and suggests unexplored immunotherapy treatment options in a wide range of malignancies.Journal of translational medicine · 2022Article
- FABP4 in obesity-associated carcinogenesis: Novel insights into mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2022Review
- Body size and composition and risk of site-specific cancers in the UK Biobank and large international consortia: A mendelian randomisation study.PLoS medicine · 2021Article
- Anti-tumor Effect of Oleic Acid in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell LinesFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Investigating Serum and Tissue Expression Identified a Cytokine/Chemokine Signature as a Highly Effective Melanoma Marker.Cancers · 2020Article
- An investigation into the molecular basis of cancer comorbidities in coronavirus infection.FEBS open bio · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPublicly available genomic and transcriptomic data in searchable databases allow researchers to investigate specific medical issues in thousands of patients. Many studies have highlighted the role lipids play in cancer initiation and progression and reported nutritional interventions aimed at improving prognosis and survival. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in the role that fat intake may play in cancer. It is known that there is a relationship between BMI and survival in patients with cancer, and that there is an association between a high-fat diet and increased cancer risk. In some cancers, such as colorectal cancer, obesity and high fat intake are known to increase the risk of cancer initiation and progression. On the contrary, in patients undergoing treatment for melanoma, a higher BMI unexpectedly acts as a protective factor rather than a risk factor; this phenomenon is known as the obesity paradox.
objectiveWe aimed to identify the molecular mechanism underlying the obesity paradox, with the expectation that this could indicate new effective strategies to reduce risk factors and improve protective approaches.
methodsIn order to determine the genes potentially involved in this process, we investigated the expression values of lipid-related genes in patients with melanoma or colorectal cancer. We used available data from 2990 patients from 3 public databases (IST [In Silico Transcriptomics] Online, GEO [Gene Expression Omnibus], and Oncomine) in an analysis that involved 3 consecutive validation steps. Of this group, data from 1410 individuals were analyzed in the IST Online database (208 patients with melanoma and 147 healthy controls, as well as 991 patients with colorectal cancer and 64 healthy controls). In addition, 45 melanoma, 18 nevi, and 7 healthy skin biopsies were analyzed in another database, GEO, to validate the IST Online data. Finally, using the Oncomine database, 318 patients with melanoma (312 controls) and 435 patients with colorectal cancer (445 controls) were analyzed.
resultsIn the first and second database investigated (IST Online and GEO, respectively), patients with melanoma consistently showed significantly (P<.001) lower expression levels of 4 genes compared to healthy controls: CD36, MARCO, FABP4, and FABP7. This strong reduction was not observed in patients with colorectal cancer. An additional analysis was carried out on a DNA-TCGA data set from the Oncomine database, further validating CD36 and FABP4.
conclusionsThe observed lower expression of genes such as CD36 and FABP4 in melanoma may reduce the cellular internalization of fat and therefore make patients with melanoma less sensitive to a high dietary fat intake, explaining in part the obesity paradox observed in patients with melanoma.
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