Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is among the most malignant
tumors with high propensity for
metastasis and is the leading cause of
cancer-related death globally. Most patients present with regional and distant
metastasis, associated with poor prognosis.
Lipids may play an essential role in either activating or inhibiting detachment-induced apoptosis (anoikis), where the latter is a crucial mechanism to prevent
metastasis, and it may have a cross-talk with autophagy. Autophagy has been shown to be induced in various human
cancer metastasis, modulating
tumor cell motility and invasion,
cancer cell differentiation, resistance to anoikis, and epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Hence, it may play a crucial role in the transition of benign to malignant phenotypes, the core of
metastasis initiation. Here, we provide a method we have established in our laboratory for detecting
lipids in attached and detached non-small
lung cancer cells and show how to analyze lipidomics data to find its correlation with autophagy-related pathways.