Fatty-acid synthase and human cancer: New perspectives on its role in tumor biology

This review documents the changing perspectives on the function of fatty-ac id synthase and fatty-acid synthesis in human tumor biology. With the recen t discovery that human cancer cells express high levels of fatty-acid synth ase and undergo significant endogenous fatty-acid synthesis, our understand ing of the role of fatty acids in tumor biology is expanding. Once consider ed largely an anabolic-energy-storage pathway, fatty-acid synthesis is now associated with clinically aggressive tumor behavior and tumor-cell growth and survival and has become a novel target pathway for chemotherapy develop ment. These findings will ultimately enhance our understanding of fatty aci ds in tumor biology and may provide new diagnostic and therapeutic moieties for patient care. (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 2000.