Abstract: Fat mass and obesity associated gene (FTO) has been identified as a novel gene related with obesity in recent years. A large amount of studies report the significant association between FTO expression level and energy metabolism. Besides, epidemiological studies and meta-analysis studies indicate the possibility that FTO gene polymorphism is related with cancer risk such as pancreatic cancer, endometrial cancer, breast cancer and so on. Taken account of the special energy metabolism in cancer cells which is different from that in normal cells, it is rather a novel and hot hypothesis to be investigated that FTO plays an important role in regulating energy metabolism of cancers.

Key words: Neoplasms, Energy metabolism, FTO