Metabolic enzyme ACSL3 is a prognostic biomarker and correlates with anticancer effectiveness of statins in non-small cell lung cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers, still characterized by high mortality rates. As lipid metabolism contributes to cancer metabolic reprogramming, several lipid metabolism genes are considered prognostic biomarkers of cancer. Statins are a class of lipid-lowering compounds used in treatment of cardiovascular disease that are currently studied for their antitumor effects. However, their exact mechanism of action and specific conditions in which they should be administered remain unclear. Here, we found that simvastatin treatment effectively promoted anti-proliferative effects and modulated lipid metabolism-related pathways in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, and that the anti-proliferative effects of statins were potentiated by overexpression of acyl-CoA synthetase long chain family member 3 (ACSL3). Moreover, ACSL3 overexpression was associated with worse clinical outcome in patients with high grade NSCLC. Finally, we found that patients with high expression levels of ACSL3 displayed a clinical benefit of statins treatment. Therefore, our study highlights ACSL3 as a prognostic biomarker for NSCLC, useful to select patients who would obtain a clinical benefit from statin administration.