Molecular Characterization and Clinical Relevance of Metabolic Expression Subtypes in Human Cancers

Xinxin Peng, Zhongyuan Chen, Farshad Farshidfar, Xiaoyan Xu, Philip L. Lorenzi, Yumeng Wang, Feixiong Cheng, Lin Tan, Kamalika Mojumdar, Di Du, Zhongqi Ge, Jun Li, George V. Thomas, Kivanc Birsoy, Lingxiang Liu, Huiwen Zhang, Zhongming Zhao, Calena Marchand, John N. Weinstein, Samantha J. Caesar-JohnsonJohn A. Demchok, Ina Felau, Melpomeni Kasapi, Martin L. Ferguson, Carolyn M. Hutter, Heidi J. Sofia, Roy Tarnuzzer, Zhining Wang, Liming Yang, Jean C. Zenklusen, Jiashan (Julia) Zhang, Sudha Chudamani, Jia Liu, Laxmi Lolla, Rashi Naresh, Todd Pihl, Qiang Sun, Yunhu Wan, Ye Wu, Juok Cho, Timothy DeFreitas, Scott Frazer, Nils Gehlenborg, Gad Getz, David I. Heiman, Jaegil Kim, Michael S. Lawrence, Pei Lin, Sam Meier, Ronald de Krijger,

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Metabolic reprogramming provides critical information for clinical oncology. Using molecular data of 9,125 patient samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we identified tumor subtypes in 33 cancer types based on mRNA expression patterns of seven major metabolic processes and assessed their clinical relevance. Our metabolic expression subtypes correlated extensively with clinical outcome: subtypes with upregulated carbohydrate, nucleotide, and vitamin/cofactor metabolism most consistently correlated with worse prognosis, whereas subtypes with upregulated lipid metabolism showed the opposite. Metabolic subtypes correlated with diverse somatic drivers but exhibited effects convergent on cancer hallmark pathways and were modulated by highly recurrent master regulators across cancer types. As a proof-of-concept example, we demonstrated that knockdown of SNAI1 or RUNX1-master regulators of carbohydrate metabolic subtypes-modulates metabolic activity and drug sensitivity. Our study provides a system-level view of metabolic heterogeneity within and across cancer types and identifies pathway cross-talk, suggesting related prognostic, therapeutic, and predictive utility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)255-269.e4
JournalCell Reports
Volume23
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Apr 2018

Keywords

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit/genetics
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways
  • Neoplasms/classification
  • Snail Family Transcription Factors/genetics
  • Transcriptome

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