Further, to explore the association between metabolism and the ATOH8 mediated CTC survival, ssGSEA analyses were performed, and the data revealed that only glycolysis, a vital metabolic pathway in tumour cells, was significantly different between ATOH8high and ATOH8low, rather than fatty acid metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation and amino acid metabolism (Fig. 3a), etc. A previous study has reported that activated glycolysis was closely associated with anoikis tolerance and cell survival in prostate cancer [29]. This evidence concerns the gene ATOH8 and prostate carcinoma.