Blood plasma metabolites and the risk of developing lung cancer in Russia

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in men, and is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Therefore, the identification of specific markers associated with a risk of lung cancer development, particularly metabolites that are more easily assayed, would be very valuable. To this end, а comparative metabolomics study of blood plasma samples collected from patients with lung cancer (n=100) and controls (n=100) recruited in Moscow was carried out. After the extraction of blood plasma proteins with methanol, the remaining plasma metabolite fractions were analyzed directly using mass spectrometry. Hundreds of cancer-associated metabolites were detected, and at least 70 metabolite ions with odds ratio values of 10-288 were found to be associated with the presence of cancer. Although these metabolites were present at higher levels in cancer patients, particularly in the early stages of disease, they did not correlate positively with cancer progression. On the basis of these findings, this metabolomics study of blood plasma samples from cancer patients shows that numerous cancer-associated metabolites were present in the studied population, and these could be used as factors for calculating the risk of lung cancer development in addition to currently used risk factors.