Transcriptomic metaanalyses of autistic brains reveals shared gene expression and biological pathway abnormalities with cancer.

Only frontal cortex post-mortem tissue was analysed, so other brain regions and living patients may differ. The ASD datasets were small, had overlapping patients, and needed added control samples, which limits statistical power and generalisability. Gene expression alone does not show whether pathways are activated or inhibited. The transcriptomic associations were not ASD-specific: ulcerative colitis also matched ASD and colorectal cancer patterns. The paper reports gene-expression meta-analyses, not clinical outcomes, cancer diagnoses, behaviour, communication or treatment responses.

Do not read this as proof that patients with autism have higher cancer risk or that mTOR inhibitors should be used to treat autism. The paper compares gene-expression patterns from small post-mortem autism brain samples with cancer samples, not patient outcomes, and the authors say further epidemiological and molecular studies are needed.