Steroidomics for the Prevention, Assessment, and Management of Cancers: A Systematic Review and Functional Analysis

Abstract

Steroidomics, an analytical technique for steroid biomarker mining, has received much attention in recent years. This systematic review and functional analysis, following the PRISMA statement, aims to provide a comprehensive review and an appraisal of the developments and fundamental issues in steroid high-throughput analysis, with a focus on cancer research. We also discuss potential pitfalls and proposed recommendations for steroidomics-based clinical research. Forty-five studies met our inclusion criteria, with a focus on 12 types of cancer. Most studies focused on cancer risk prediction, followed by diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy monitoring. Prostate cancer was the most frequently studied cancer. Estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and cortisol were mostly reported and altered in at least four types of cancer. Estrogen and estrogen metabolites were highly reported to associate with women-related cancers. Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that steroidogenesis; androgen and estrogen metabolism; and androstenedione metabolism were significantly altered in cancers. Our findings indicated that estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone, cortisol, and estrogen metabolites, among others, could be considered oncosteroids. Despite noble achievements, significant shortcomings among the investigated studies were small sample sizes, cross-sectional designs, potential confounding factors, and problematic statistical approaches. More efforts are required to establish standardized procedures regarding study design, analytical procedures, and statistical inference.

Current progress in metabolomics of gestational diabetes mellitus

“…At present, the two most commonly used strategies for metabolomics analysis are untargeted metabolomics and targeted metabolomics[ 21 ]. Untargeted metabolomics, also known as global metabolomics profiling, means that all or most possible metabolites are unbiasedly qualitatively or quantitatively analyzed in given biological samples[ 22 , 23 ].…”

Breast Cancer: Targeting of Steroid Hormones in Cancerogenesis and Diagnostics

“…For other differentially expressed steroids, the most significant of the steroid biomarkers were estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone and cortisol. Anh et al [38], in their study, pointed to significant changes in steroidogenesis, androgen and estrogen metabolism, and androstenedione metabolism in cancers. Their findings suggest that estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone, cortisol and estrogen metabolites may be considered as oncosteroids.…”

“…Many studies on steroidomics in clinical diagnosis and doping control have been performed in recent [35][36][37]. Anh et al [38] investigated the role of steroidomics in the prevention, evaluation and treatment of cancer and showed that various types of steroids are significantly associated with common cancers, especially breast, endometrial and prostate cancers.…”

“…Oncosteroidomics is a targeting method for the future clinical application. Next, it will be necessary to establish standardized methods to employ the modifications of steroid metabolic networks for the prevention, assessment and management of cancers [38].…”

Toward a Standardized Strategy of Clinical Metabolomics for the Advancement of Precision Medicine

“…MS is the primary analytical method on which the emerging omics fields such as proteomics and metabolomics are based. Owing to its potential as a multi-platform analytical method and its diverse applicability from diagnosis and prognosis to the discovery of novel biomarkers for targeted therapies, MS has been routinely applied in omics studies, especially cancer and metabolism-related omics research, for a better insight into human diseases [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Table 1 displays the main findings of some major studies among the initial achievements of the field.…”