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The Use of Metabolomics in Cancer Research

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An Omics Perspective on Cancer Research

Abstract

The use of metabolite profiling techniques (metabonomics or metabolomics) in toxicology is a relatively new branch of this science. Due to their unique biochemical properties, cancer cells should, in principle, be an ideal field of application for metabolite profiling. However, due to technical and study design limitations there are only a few reliably metabolite profiles for human tumors. This chapter provides examples for the recognition of metabolic changes in animals induced by exposure to (carcinogenic) chemicals. In two major projects (COMET and MetaMapTox), data bases have been developed which are sufficiently large to evaluate the full potential of metabolite profiling in toxicology and cancer research. In both projects blood and urine were used as matrices which can be easily obtained with minimally-invasive methods. Based on a high degree of standardization and a large-scale controlled data collection, consistent patterns of metabolite changes have been identified which are associated with different toxicological modes of action, some of which are known to enhance tumor development in rodents.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Gertrud Skawran and Gunter Rank for their skilful technical assistance performing the animal study as well as Irmgard Weber for doing the clinical pathology work and the lab and data analysis teams for performing the extensive metabolite profiling analyses. Meyasse Bugay and Marina Herbst are acknowledged for their assistance in the preparation of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BASF SE, Experimental Toxicology and Ecology, Z 470, D-67056, Ludwigshafen, Germany

    B. van Ravenzwaay, G. C. Cunha, E. Fabian, H. Kamp, W. Mellert & V. Strauss

  2. BASF SE, Computational Chemistry, B9, D-67056, Ludwigshafen, Germany

    G. Krennrich

  3. Metanomics, GmbH, Tegeler Weg 33, 10589, Berlin, Germany

    M. Herold, A. Krotzky, E. Leibold, R. Looser, A. Prokoudine, R. Trethewey, T. Walk & J. Wiemer

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  1. B. van Ravenzwaay
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  2. G. C. Cunha
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  3. E. Fabian
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  9. R. Looser
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Correspondence to B. van Ravenzwaay .

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  1. Dept. Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gascoigne Road 30, Kowloon, Hong Kong/PR China

    William C.S. Cho

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van Ravenzwaay, B. et al. (2010). The Use of Metabolomics in Cancer Research. In: Cho, W. (eds) An Omics Perspective on Cancer Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2675-0_8

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