Breast cancer detection using targeted plasma metabolomics
Paniz Jasbi1, Dongfang Wang2, Sunny Lihua Cheng3
1Arizona Metabolomics Laboratory, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA.
Summary
This study identifies a novel 6-metabolite panel for breast cancer (BC) detection. This metabolomics approach shows high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing all stages of BC, including early-stage disease.
Area of Science:
- Metabolomics
- Biomarker Discovery
- Cancer Diagnostics
Background:
- Breast cancer (BC) poses a significant global health challenge, necessitating improved screening and monitoring tools.
- Current diagnostic methods for BC require enhancement, particularly for early detection and comprehensive disease staging.
- Metabolic alterations are integral to cancer development, yet specific metabolic markers for BC remain underdeveloped.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a sensitive and specific metabolomics-based approach for detecting all stages of breast cancer.
- To identify a panel of reliable metabolic biomarkers for early-stage breast cancer diagnosis.
- To investigate metabolic pathway disturbances associated with breast cancer pathogenesis.
Main Methods:
- Targeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for metabolic profiling of plasma samples.
- Analysis of 105 metabolites across >35 metabolic pathways in 201 plasma samples (102 BC patients, 99 controls).
- Application of general linear models, partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Main Results:
- A 6-metabolite panel was constructed, demonstrating high diagnostic performance (AUROC=0.89, sensitivity=0.80, specificity=0.75) for all BC stages.
- The panel achieved similar performance for early-stage BC detection (AUROC=0.87, sensitivity=0.86, specificity=0.75).
- Bioinformatics analysis revealed significant alterations in arginine/proline metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, and fatty acid biosynthesis.
Conclusions:
- The developed metabolomics approach and 6-metabolite panel are effective for diagnosing breast cancer across all stages, including early detection.
- Identified metabolic pathway disturbances are linked to tumor growth, metastasis, and immune evasion mechanisms in breast cancer.
- Further validation with larger, diverse sample sets is recommended to confirm these findings.
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