Human plasma metabolomics for identifying differential metabolites and predicting molecular subtypes of breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE

This work aims to identify differential metabolites and predicting molecular subtypes of breast cancer (BC).

METHODS

Plasma samples were collected from 96 BC patients and 79 normal participants. Metabolic profiles were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based on multivariate statistical data analysis.

RESULTS

We observed 64 differential metabolites between BC and normal group. Compared to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative patients, HER2-positive group showed elevated aerobic glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and increased fatty acid biosynthesis with reduced Krebs cycle. Compared with estrogen receptor (ER)-negative group, ER-positive patients showed elevated alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, decreased glycerolipid catabolism, and enhanced purine metabolism. A panel of 8 differential metabolites, including carnitine, lysophosphatidylcholine (20:4), proline, alanine, lysophosphatidylcholine (16:1), glycochenodeoxycholic acid, valine, and 2-octenedioic acid, was identified for the classification of BC subtypes. These markers showed potential diagnostic value with average area under the curve at 0.925 (95% CI 0.867-0.983) for the training set (n=51) and 0.893 (95% CI 0.847-0.939) for the test set (n=45).

CONCLUSIONS

Human plasma metabolomics is useful in identifying differential metabolites and predicting breast cancer subtypes.