Wang LL, Zheng W, Liu XL, Yin F. Somatic mutations in FAT cadherin family members constitute an underrecognized subtype of colorectal adenocarcinoma with unique clinicopathologic features. World J Clin Oncol 2022; 13(10): 779-788 [PMID: 36337316 DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v13.i10.779]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Feng Yin, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, One Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. fengyin@health.missouri.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Cohort Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Oncol. Oct 24, 2022; 13(10): 779-788 Published online Oct 24, 2022. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v13.i10.779
Somatic mutations in FAT cadherin family members constitute an underrecognized subtype of colorectal adenocarcinoma with unique clinicopathologic features
Liang-Li Wang, Wei Zheng, Xiu-Li Liu, Feng Yin
Liang-Li Wang, Feng Yin, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Wei Zheng, Department of Pathology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States
Xiu-Li Liu, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States
Author contributions: Wang LL, Zheng W, Liu XL and Yin F collected and analyzed the data, made the tables and figures, and wrote and finalized the manuscript; and all authors have approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study is solely based on the publicly available TCGA PanCancer Atlas database. The Institutional Review Board Approval is not applicable.
Informed consent statement: This study is solely based on the publicly available TCGA PanCancer Atlas database. The Informed Consent Statement is not applicable.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
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: Feng Yin, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, One Hospital Drive, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. fengyin@health.missouri.edu
Received: July 26, 2022 Peer-review started: July 26, 2022 First decision: August 18, 2022 Revised: August 25, 2022 Accepted: September 15, 2022 Article in press: September 15, 2022 Published online: October 24, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
The human FAT cadherin gene family comprises the FAT1, FAT2, FAT3 and FAT4 genes. Somatic mutations of FAT family genes have been detected in different human cancers.
Research motivation
Until now, the role of FAT family genes in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) tumorigenesis has not been well studied. In this study, we characterized the clinicopathologic features of FAT family gene mutations in CRC patients.
Research objectives
In total, 526 CRC cases were selected from The Cancer Genome Atlas PanCancer Atlas dataset.
Research methods
CRC cases were categorized into two groups based on their mutational status on FAT family genes: The cases with mutant FAT1-4 and the cases with wild-type FAT1-4. Standard demographic and clinicopathological data were retrieved for each patient, including age, sex, tumor location, pT stage, pN stage, pM stage, differentiation grade, tumor type, lymphovascular invasion, month of disease-free survival and overall survival.
Research results
The FAT-mutated CRC subtype is more commonly located on the right side of the colon and shows favorable clinicopathologic features, including a lower rate of positive lymph nodes and a lower rate of metastasis to another site or organ.
Research conclusions
FAT cadherin family genes are frequently mutated in CRC, and their mutation profile defines a subtype of CRC with favorable clinicopathologic characteristics.
Research perspectives
FAT somatic mutation is a potentially independent prognostic factor in CRC.
