Serum metabolite levels identify incipient metastatic progression of rectal cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The cellular metabolism undergoes reprogramming during the metastatic process. We hypothesised that serum metabolites at the time of primary tumour diagnosis might identify rectal cancer patients prone to metastatic progression.

Methods

One hundred twenty-three rectal cancer patients from a prospective observational biomarker study were followed up to 5 years after study entry. We have assessed metabolites in serum sampled at the time of diagnosis by ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, using the internal reference trimethylsilylpropanoic acid for quantification.

Results

Here we show that patients who develop overt metastatic disease more than 6 months after the primary tumour diagnosis have elevated serum levels (Kruskal-Wallis test) of a

SUBMITTER: Bakke KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12034819 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature