The Ability of Metabolomics to Discriminate Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Subtypes Depends on the Stage of the Disease and the Type of Material Studied

Abstract

Identification of the NSCLC subtype at an early stage is still quite sophisticated. Metabolomics analysis of tissue and plasma of NSCLC patients may indicate new, and yet unknown, metabolic pathways active in the NSCLC. Our research characterized the metabolomics profile of tissue and plasma of patients with early and advanced NSCLC stage. Samples were subjected to thorough metabolomics analyses using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technique. Tissue and/or plasma samples from 137 NSCLC patients were analyzed. Based on the early stage tissue analysis, more than 200 metabolites differentiating adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell lung carcinoma (SCC) subtypes as well as normal tissue, were identified. Most of the identified metabolites were amino acids, fatty acids, carnitines, lysoglycerophospholipids, sphingomyelins, plasmalogens and glycerophospholipids. Moreover, metabolites related to N-acyl ethanolamine (NAE) biosynthesis, namely glycerophospho (N-acyl) ethanolamines (GP-NAE), which discriminated early-stage SCC from ADC, have also been identified. On the other hand, the analysis of plasma of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and NSCLC patients allowed exclusion of the metabolites related to the inflammatory state in lungs and the identification of compounds (lysoglycerophospholipids, glycerophospholipids and sphingomyelins) truly characteristic to cancer. Our results, among already known, showed novel, thus far not described, metabolites discriminating NSCLC subtypes, especially in the early stage of cancer. Moreover, the presented results also indicated the activity of new metabolic pathways in NSCLC. Further investigations on the role of NAE biosynthesis pathways in the early stage of NSCLC may reveal new prognostic and diagnostic targets.