Fig. 2
Enrichment pathways of EOCRC. A The cell proportions in tumor microenvironment of EOCRC and LOCRC groups. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001, significant statistical differences between the two subgroups were assessed using the Wilcoxon test. B Volcano plot indicates the comparison at transcriptomic levels between EOCRC and LOCRC through ssGSEA enrichment scores. Upregulated pathways in the EOCRC group are shown in red and downregulated pathways are shown in blue. C–F GSEA results for the upregulated (C,D) and downregulated (E,F) pathways in the EOCRC group and LOCRC group, respectively (FDR < 0.05). G,H Quantification of selected genes of the fatty acids pathway (G) and glycolytic pathway (H) in the TCGA cohort (log2 intensity levels). Each boxplot shows the median and interquartile range (25 th–75 th percentiles). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, significance was determined using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. EOCRC, early-onset colorectal cancer; LOCRC, late-onset CRC; ns, not significant; GSEA, gene-set enrichment analysis; NES, normalized enrichment score