Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2025; 31(25): 107478
Published online Jul 7, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i25.107478
Deciphering lactate metabolism in colorectal cancer: Prognostic modeling, immune infiltration, and gene mutation insights
Xiao-Peng Wang, Jia-Xin Zhu, Chang Liu, Hao-Wen Zhang, Guan-Duo Sun, Jing-Ming Zhai, Hai-Jun Yang, De-Chun Liu
Xiao-Peng Wang, Jia-Xin Zhu, Guan-Duo Sun, Jing-Ming Zhai, De-Chun Liu, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, and College of Clinical Medicine of Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, Henan Province, China
Chang Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710000, Shaanxi Province, China
Hao-Wen Zhang, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Anyang Tumor Hospital, Anyang 455000, Henan Province, China
Hai-Jun Yang, Department of Pathology, Anyang Tumor Hospital, Anyang 455000, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Wang XP and Zhu JX wrote the manuscript; Wang XP and Liu DC made contribution to conception and design; Zhu JX and Liu C contributed to method; Zhang HW, Sun GD, and Zhai JM collected data; Yang HJ and Liu DC revised the manuscript and did research supervision. All authors approved the submitted version.
Supported by Henan Province Science and Technology Research Project, No. 232102310043; Henan Provincial Science and Technology Research and Development Plan Joint Fund, No. 222103810047; and Key Scientific Research Project Plan of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province, No. 22A320033.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Anyang Tumor Hospital (No. 2023WZ02K02). This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The data that support the results of current study is available on The Cancer Genome Atlas (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/), Gene Expression Omnibus websites (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo), Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (https://www.cancerrxgene.org/), and Molecular Signatures Database (https://www.gsea-msigdb.org/gsea/msigdb).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: De-Chun Liu, PhD, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, and College of Clinical Medicine of Henan University of Science and Technology, No. 24 Jinghua Road, Jianxi District, Luoyang 471003, Henan Province, China. lydocliu666@163.com
Received: March 27, 2025
Revised: May 3, 2025
Accepted: June 10, 2025
Published online: July 7, 2025
Processing time: 100 Days and 1.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study presents a comprehensive analysis of lactate metabolism in colorectal cancer, identifying its pivotal role in shaping the tumor microenvironment and influencing immune infiltration. A predictive model utilizing a panel of seven lactate metabolism-related genes was developed, accurately predicting patient outcomes and drug sensitivity. Integration of transcriptomic and single-cell data highlights monocyte/macrophage metabolic activity, offering novel insights into personalized colorectal cancer therapy and the potential of targeting lactate metabolism to enhance treatment efficacy.