Metabolomics and detection of colorectal cancer in humans: a systematic review

Abstract

Metabolomics represents one of the new omics sciences and capitalizes on the unique presence and concentration of small molecules in tissues and body fluids to construct a 'fingerprint' that can be unique to the individual and, within that individual, unique to environmental influences, including health and disease states. As such, metabolomics has the potential to serve an important role in diagnosis and management of human conditions. Colorectal cancer is a major public health concern. Current population-based screening methods are suboptimal and whether metabolomics could represent a new tool of screening is under investigation. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize existing literature on metabolomics and colorectal cancer, in terms of diagnostic accuracies and distinguishing metabolites. Eight studies are included. A total of 12 metabolites (taurine, lactate, choline, inositol, glycine, phosphocholine, proline, phenylalanine, alanine, threonine, valine and leucine) were found to be more prevalent in colorectal cancer and glucose was found to be in higher proportion in control specimens using tissue metabolomics. Serum and urine metabolomics identified several other differential metabolites between controls and colorectal cancer patients. This article highlights the novelty of the field of metabolomics in colorectal oncology.

Determination of amino acids in urine of patients with prostate cancer and benign prostate growth

“…The new biomarker may improve the diagnostic process by helping physicians to more accurately diagnose patients and also improve a patient's comfort during the procedure by reducing the number of invasive procedures (Birkemeyer et al, 2005;Denkert et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2010;Serkova et al, 2011).…”

Metabonomics of Human Colorectal Cancer: New Approaches for Early Diagnosis and Biomarker Discovery

“…6 CRC is currently diagnosed by endoscopic and radiological imaging pre-operatively and confirmed with histopathological examination of biopsies or surgically removed specimens. 7 However, the invasive and unpleasant nature of these diagnostic modalities often brings unwanted pain and discomfort to the patients, highlighting the demand for less or noninvasive tests with improved patient compliance for use in the clinic. The fecal occult blood test (FOBT) and the serum test of tumor markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) have been commonly used in the clinic, but the lack of sensitivity and specificity of these markers has significantly limited the clinical application of these markers in CRC diagnosis.…”

Energy deprivation by silibinin in colorectal cancer cells

“…The results indicated that indeed ROS generation served as a trigger for apoptosis as indicated by significant reversal of silibinin caused apoptotic death by AA; of all the antioxidants used, AA identify and establish the metabolic profiles specific to CRC malignancy. 14,15 We recently reported the strong preventive and therapeutic efficacy of silibinin (flavonolignan isolated from the seeds of milk thistle), in different CRC preclinical models and subsequently analyzed the protein molecules possibly involved with silibinin efficacy. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] From a broader viewpoint, the limitation of these studies was that it did not discuss the efficacy of the silibinin treatment in terms of the metabolic profile and energy state of the colonic tumors.…”