Serum metabolomics analysis for early detection of colorectal cancer
BackgroundAlthough colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common causes of cancer mortality, early stage detection improves survival rates dramatically. Because cancer impacts important metabolic pathways, the alteration of metabolite levels as a potential biomarker of early stage cancer has been the focus of many studies. Here, we used CE TOFMS, a novel and promising method with small injection volume and high resolution, to separate and detect ionic compounds based on the different migration rates of charged metabolites in order to detect metabolic biomarkers in patients with CRC.MethodsA total of 56 patients with CRC (n 14 each of Stages I IV) 60 healthy controls, and 59 patients with colonic adenoma were included in this study. Metabolome analysis was conducted by CE TOFMS on serum samples of patients and controls using the Advanced Scan package (Human Metabolome Technologies).ResultsWe obtained 334 metabolites in the serum, of which 139 were identified as known substances. Among these 139 known metabolites, 16 were correlated with CRC stage by upregulation and 44 by downregulation, with benzoic acid (r 0.649, t 11.653, p 6.07599E 24) octanoic acid (r 0.557, t 9.183, p 7.9557E 17) decanoic acid (r 0.539, t 8.749, p 1.24352E 15) and histidine (r 0.513, t 8.194, p 3.90224E 14) exhibiting significant correlation.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to determine the correlation between serum metabolites and CRC stage using CE TOFMS. Our results show that benzoic acid exhibited excellent diagnostic power and could potentially serve as a novel disease biomarker for CRC diagnosis.
Journal of Gastroenterology