This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Serum metabolites may serve as biomarker for early lung cancer detection
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Serum metabolite profiles significantly differed between patients with stage I to III non–small cell lung cancer and at-risk adults without lung cancer, a finding that suggests metabolites offer promise as a potential lung cancer biomarker, according to study results presented at CHEST 2014.
“Our results showed that patients with lung cancer have altered metabolic processes,” researcher Peter J. Mazzone, MD, FCCP, director of the lung cancer program for the Respiratory Institute at Cleveland Clinic, said in a press release. “This information could lead to the development of a diagnostic biomarker for the early detection of lung cancer.”
Peter J. Mazzone
Mazzone and colleagues collected serum from 94 patients (median age, 68.7 years) with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fifty patients had lung adenocarcinoma and 44 had squamous cell carcinoma. Patients had stage I (44%), II (17%) or III (39%) disease.
Researchers compared the serum profiles of these patients with an at-risk control population comprised of 190 adults (median age, 66.2 years) who were matched for age, gender, smoking history, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and blood lipids.
Global metabolite profiling detected 534 metabolites in eight metabolite super-pathways — such as the amino acid, lipid and xenobiotics super-pathways — and 73 sub-pathways.
The concentration of 70 metabolites was significantly lower in patients with lung cancer, and the concentration of 79 metabolites was significantly higher in patients with lung cancer compared with the control population (
An analysis adjusted for multiple comparisons indicated 65 metabolites had significantly different concentrations in patients with adenocarcinoma compared with matched controls, and 50 metabolites significantly differed between patients with squamous cell carcinoma and controls. However, no metabolites significantly differed between patients with adenocarcinoma and patients with squamous cell carcinoma.
“Differences in serum metabolite profiles exist between patients with stage I to III NSCLC and matched controls,” Mazzone and colleagues wrote. “Knowledge of distinguishing patterns of small molecule metabolites may allow us to identify individuals with lung cancer, better understand the nature of their cancer and develop novel means of targeting the cancer.”
For more information:
Poster #2709. Presented at: CHEST 2014; Oct. 23-31, 2014; Austin, Texas.
Disclosure: Mazzone reports advisory/consultant roles with and grant money and consultant fees from Integrated Diagnostics, Metabolomics, Oncimmune and Varian.