Abstract: Lipids possess significant biological roles. There are complicated pathways of lipid metabolism and interconvertion of multiple lipid classes. The abnormality of lipid metabolism can cause various diseases, including diabetes, obesity, cancer and nervous degenerative diseases, etc.. The occurrence and development of tumors is a complex biological process associated with multiple mechanisms and factors. Energy metabolic deregulation has been concerned in the research of various cancers recently. With the development of lipidomics technology, increasing studies showed that the changes of lipid profiles and their metabolic deregulation played very important roles in the occurrence and development of cancers. In this review, we summarize the lipid metabolism pathways, the abnormality of lipid metabolism and their roles as well as the research progresses in the occurrence and development of cancer.