Editorial: The impact of lipid metabolism on cancer progression and metastasis

Abstract

Recent advances in oncology, immunology, and metabolic medicine have increasingly positioned lipid metabolism as a central determinant of cancer initiation, progression, and therapeutic response. Across multiple domains, lipid metabolic pathways are now understood to intersect with endocrine regulation, immune cell function, and systemic metabolic homeostasis, thereby influencing tumor behavior at both cellular and organismal levels. This expanding body of evidence highlights lipid metabolism not as an isolated biochemical process, but as an integrative axis that coordinates metabolic, immunological, and endocrine signals within the tumor microenvironment and throughout the host. Such a multidimensional perspective underscores the importance of synthesizing cross-disciplinary findings to fully elucidate the mechanistic and translational relevance of lipid metabolic regulation in contemporary cancer research.