[Metabolome analysis of solid tumors]

Metabolomics, the newest of the omics sciences that also include genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, has matured into a reliable high-throughput technology. Gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOFMS) is a suitable method to analyze the central metabolism in fresh frozen tumor tissue samples. Bioinformatics methods, including the PROFILE clustering developed by us, permit integrated analysis and fast interpretation of metabolomics data in the context of enzymatic reactions and metabolic pathways. The metabolome analyses of three solid tumor types presented here, together with the results of other authors, show that metabolites are suitable as biomarkers and provide diverse options for translation into the clinical setting.