Metabolomic profiling of hormone-dependent cancers: a bird's eye view

Abstract

Hormone-dependent cancers present a significant public health challenge, as they are among the most common cancers in the world. One factor associated with cancer development and progression is metabolic reprogramming. By understanding these alterations, we can identify potential markers and novel biochemical therapeutic targets. Metabolic profiling is an advanced technology that allows investigators to assess low molecular weight compounds that reflect physiological alterations. Current research in metabolomics in prostate and breast cancer has made great strides in uncovering specific metabolic pathways that are associated with cancer development, progression, and resistance. This review will highlight some of the major findings and potential therapeutic advances that have been reported utilizing this technology.

Circulating oxysterol metabolites as potential new surrogate markers in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: Results of the OXYTAM study

“…AI are drugs commonly used to treat BC that work through a different mechanism to that of Tam, by inhibiting the production of estrogen from androgen [2]. Recent literature has highlighted the role of OS, oxygenated cholesterol derivatives, in BC progression [3][4][5][6] and resistance to Tam [7][8][9][10][11][12]. The impact of AI on OS metabolism is currently unknown.…”

Vitamins, metabolomics, and prostate cancer

“…Recent reviews attempting to synthesize such post-diagnosis prostate cancer metabolomic data reveal diverse patient populations, study methods, laboratory platforms, and biological samples with mixed outcomes [84,85]. One focused on individual metabolite signals and found little replication across the clinical studies [85], while the other evaluated metabolite classes and metabolic pathways and noted patterns consistent with lipid and energy pathway dysregulation [84], similar to the pre-diagnostic prospective data described below. This apparent concordance at the pathway level across different study approaches is encouraging regarding our understanding of prostate cancer, and suggests it may be a more valuable approach for synthesizing data across studies than examining only individual metabolite signals.…”

“…A wide variety of biological samples have been profiled for prostate cancer cases with diverse clinical and histopathological characteristics (e.g., stage and Gleason), including tissue from biopsies, radical prostatectomies, and distant metastases. Serum or plasma from both fasting and non-fasting participants, as well as urine can be assayed [84,85]. Metabolomic profiling of such different samples and populations might be expected to yield diverse and inconsistent findings that will require synthesis and a more comprehensive concept of disease development and progression.…”

Identification of metabolites in plasma for predicting survival in glioblastoma

“…In addition to the Warburg effect, glioblastoma tumor cells also utilize the tricarboxylic acid cycle/oxidative phosphorylation in a different capacity relative to normal tissue. In recent years, metabolomics‐based approaches have been recognized as an emerging tool to discover novel biomarkers for cancer including early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and the assessment of drug efficacy …”

“…In recent years, metabolomics-based approaches have been recognized as an emerging tool to discover novel biomarkers for cancer including early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and the assessment of drug efficacy. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Metabolomics profiling in glioblastoma has only recently begun to emerge. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] For example, in glioblastoma cell lines, Palanichamy et al identified a four-metabolite signature that played an important role in promoting and maintaining the growth of glioblastoma.…”