ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1584424
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Exposome and Cancer: Unraveling the Complex Interplay of Environment, Lifestyle, and GeneticsView all articles
Association between genomic features and toxic metal(loid) accumulation in left-sided and right-sided colorectal cancer
Provisionally accepted
Shoujiang Yu1Min Fu2Yurong Wang3
Lin Ling4Shushen Ji4Feng Du2Li Song4Mengzhu Wang4
Yufeng Zhai4
Jiangman Zhao4*Min Huang5- 1the First Hospital affiliated to Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan, China
- 2Nanyang Second People's Hospital, Nanyang, China
- 3Nanjing Jiangbei Hospital, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
- 4Shanghai Biotecan Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhangjiang Institute of Medical Innovation, Shanghai, China
- 5Huanghe Sanmenxia Hospital Affiliated to Henan University of Science and Technology, Sanmenxia, Henan Province, China
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Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a high heterogenous disease of genetic variations, which was influenced by tumor anatomic location and toxic metal(loid) accumulation. Current study aims to investigate genomic heterogeneity of CRC influenced by toxic metal(loid) accumulation based on tumor anatomic location.In this study, a total of 94 patients with CRC were recruited including 69 left-sided tumors and 35-right sided tumors. The genomic mutation landscape and microsatellite instability (MSI) of tumors were analyzed. The blood metal(loid) element levels were tested by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry (ICP-MS).Results: A total of 642 somatic variations across 24 genes were identified in 94 CRC patients. The most frequently mutated genes were TP53 (n=83%), followed by APC (n=67%), KRAS (52%), EGFR (41%) and PIK3CA (33%). The mutated frequency of TP53 (88.4% vs 68.0%, P=0.02) and APC (75.4% vs 44.0%, P=0.004) in left-sided tumors were significantly higher than that of right-sided tumors. Blood Hg concentration was significantly and positively correlated with numbers of variations per tumor sample (r=0.237, P=0.021). Blood As (r= -0.207, P=0.046), Sr (r= -0.256, P=0.013) and Ba (r= -0.274, P=0.08) level of patients with MSS tumor was significantly higher than that of patients with MSI tumor. Cd level of patients with tumor in left side was significantly lower than that in right side (P=0.028).Conclusions: This study presented the comprehensive genomic landscape of 94 CRC patients according to tumor anatomic location. The blood toxic metal(loid) accumulation may have potential influence on genomic features.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, Next-generation sequencing, Metal(loid), Microsatellite Instability, Anatomical location
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Fu, Wang, Ling, Ji, Du, Song, Wang, Zhai, Zhao and Huang. 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: Jiangman Zhao, Shanghai Biotecan Medical Laboratory Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhangjiang Institute of Medical Innovation, Shanghai, China
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