Role of fatty acid synthase in colorectal carcinoma

Objectives To assess the role of fatty acid synthase (FASN) in pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of colorectal carcinoma. Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most frequent cancer in women and the third one in men worldwide and constitutes ∼6.5% of all malignancies in Egypt. FASN is a valuable lipid enzyme involved in lipid biosynthesis and suggested to contribute in carcinogenesis in several tumors including CRC. Patients and methods The retrospective study included 87 CRC cases, 38 adenoma cases, and 58 normal cases. The slides were subjected to FASN immunohistochemical staining using a streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase technique. The relationships between FASN expression and clinicopathological parameters were statistically analyzed. Results The expression rate of FASN was 95.4% in the studied CRC cases versus 100% and 58.6% in adenoma and nonneoplastic cases, respectively. FASN expression was significantly associated with high-tumor grade (P = 0.01), nodal metastasis (P = 0.003) and lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.018) and highly associated with high grade of tumor budding and advanced pathological stage grouping (P = 0.001 for both). Conclusion FASN seems to act as an oncoprotein and is associated with parameters of poor prognosis and tumor progression. Thus, FASN inhibitors can be used to suppress tumor progression in CRC.