We performed the GSEA analysis used those upregulated and statistically significant DEGs in the high-risk group of the choline metabolism signature and results showed that multiple cancer-related pathways, including cell cycle, extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor interaction, cell motility, P53 and PI3k-Akt signaling were significantly enriched (Fig. 5A, Additional file 4: Fig. S3A). The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is cancer.