Metabolomics:Open Access

Metabolic Phenotyping of Blood Plasma by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to Discriminate between Colorectal Cancer, Breast Cancer and Lung Cancer

Abstract

Robby Louis, Evelyne Louis, Kirsten Stinkens, Liesbet Mesotten, Eric de Jonge, Michiel Thomeer, Philip Caenepeel and Peter Adriaensens

Background: Although many studies have demonstrated that plasma metabolic phenotyping allows discriminating between cancer patients and controls, it remains unclear whether different cancer types elicit distinguishable metabolic signatures. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine whether metabolic phenotyping of blood plasma by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows discriminating between 37 colorectal cancer, 37 breast cancer and 37 lung cancer patients. Material and methods: Plasma proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra were rationally divided into 110 integration regions defined on the basis of spiking experiments with known metabolites. The normalized integration values of these 110 regions, which represent the metabolic phenotype, were used as statistical variables to construct a classification model which enables to discriminate between the three aforementioned cancer types. Results: The resulting model allows classifying 78% of the colorectal cancer patients, 95% of the breast cancer patients and 84% of the lung cancer patients correctly. Conclusion: This preliminary feasibility study provides strong indications that the plasma metabolic phenotype has potential to become a complementary diagnostic tool to differentiate between cancer types in addition to known general cancer biomarkers.