Fucosyltransferase 4 promotes cancer metastasis via enhancing EGFR/TGFBR signaling network and is associated with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer

Purpose: Aberrant glycosylation has been known to regulate cancer cell trafficking via promoting intravascular adhesion during metastasis. Clinicopathological studies have also shown a strong correlation between aberrant glycosylation and invasive/metastatic potentials of human cancers. However, the major glycosylation enzymes that drive lung cancer metastases and the signaling networks involved in the process remain incompletely understood. Methods: Two lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, A549 and CL1-0 cells, with FUT4 overexpression and 81 lung cancer tissues and 19 adjacent lung tissues underwent RNA extraction for RNA-seq analysis. Results: We identified fucosyltransferase 4 (FUT4) as a strong predictor of patient prognosis from this RNA-seq cohort. Conclusions: High levels of FUT4 in tumor tissues significantly correlate with poor prognosis in NSCLC patients. FUT4-overexpressed lung cancer cells, NSCLC tumor and adjacent tissue RNA-seq