REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1603032
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring key pathways in the progression of gastrointestinal diseases based on metabolic reprogramming and developing drugs targeting metabolismView all 4 articles
Lipid Metabolic Reprogramming in Colorectal Cancer: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Pathology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, and its high incidence, mortality, and treatment resistance highlight the urgency of exploring new therapeutic targets. As research into cancer metabolic reprogramming deepens, the central role of lipid metabolism abnormalities in CRC progression has gradually become apparent. In the tumor microenvironment (TME), conditions such as hypoxia, glucose deprivation, and lactic acid accumulation alter the energy demands of tumor cells, driving metabolic reprogramming in lipid uptake, synthesis, and oxidation. This reprogramming helps maintain high energy needs and supports the malignant growth of tumor cells. This lipid metabolic reprogramming provides tumor cells with the necessary energy and enhances their proliferation, invasion, immune evasion, and resistance characteristics. Moreover, the lipid metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells is closely related to various cells within the TME, and these interactions promote, to some extent, the remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, further driving tumor development. Emerging lipid detection technologies position specific lipid molecules as promising biomarkers for auxiliary diagnosis and prognostic evaluation.Concurrently, targeting key lipid metabolic pathways offers innovative strategies to optimize existing therapies and overcome drug resistance. This review summarizes the basic and abnormal mechanisms of lipid metabolism in CRC, lipid metabolic interactions in the tumor microenvironment, the regulatory network between the gut microbiota and lipid metabolism, and the progress in therapeutic strategies targeting lipid metabolism. By exploring the interaction between CRC and lipid metabolism in depth, this review aims to provide new ideas and theoretical support for the treatment, early intervention, and prognosis evaluation of CRC.
Keywords: Lipid Metabolism, Fatty Acids, colorectal cancer, The tumor microenvironment, CRC therapy
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Dong, Hao, Gao and Wei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yaohui Gao, Department of Pathology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Qing Wei, Department of Pathology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.