Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Nov 28;17(12):1992.
doi: 10.3390/ijms17121992.

Advances in Lipidomics for Cancer Biomarkers Discovery

Francesca Perrotti  1   2 , Consuelo Rosa  3   4 , Ilaria Cicalini  5   6   7 , Paolo Sacchetta  8   9 , Piero Del Boccio  10   11   12 , Domenico Genovesi  13   14 , Damiana Pieragostino  15   16
Affiliations
Review

Advances in Lipidomics for Cancer Biomarkers Discovery

Francesca Perrotti et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Lipids play critical functions in cellular survival, proliferation, interaction and death, since they are involved in chemical-energy storage, cellular signaling, cell membranes, and cell-cell interactions. These cellular processes are strongly related to carcinogenesis pathways, particularly to transformation, progression, and metastasis, suggesting the bioactive lipids are mediators of a number of oncogenic processes. The current review gives a synopsis of a lipidomic approach in tumor characterization; we provide an overview on potential lipid biomarkers in the oncology field and on the principal lipidomic methodologies applied. The novel lipidomic biomarkers are reviewed in an effort to underline their role in diagnosis, in prognostic characterization and in prediction of therapeutic outcomes. A lipidomic investigation through mass spectrometry highlights new insights on molecular mechanisms underlying cancer disease. This new understanding will promote clinical applications in drug discovery and personalized therapy.

Keywords: biomarkers; cancer; diagnostic factors; lipidomics; prognostic factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Ferlay J., Soerjomataram I., Dikshit R., Eser S., Mathers C., Rebelo M., Parkin D.M., Forman D., Bray F. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: Sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int. J. Cancer. 2015;136:359–386. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29210. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Szasz A.M., Gyorffy B., Marko-Varga G. Cancer heterogeneity determined by functional proteomics. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 2016 doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2016.08.026. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bandu R., Mok H.J., Kim K.P. Phospholipids as cancer biomarkers: Mass spectrometry-based analysis. Mass Spectrom. Rev. 2016 doi: 10.1002/mas.21510. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ivanova P.T., Cerda B.A., Horn D.M., Cohen J.S., McLafferty F.W., Brown H.A. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry analysis of changes in phospholipids in RBL-2H3 mastocytoma cells during degranulation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2001;98:7152–7157. doi: 10.1073/pnas.131195098. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Astigarraga E., Barreda-Gomez G., Lombardero L., Fresnedo O., Castano F., Giralt M.T., Ochoa B., Rodriguez-Puertas R., Fernandez J.A. Profiling and imaging of lipids on brain and liver tissue by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry using 2-mercaptobenzothiazole as a matrix. Anal. Chem. 2008;80:9105–9114. doi: 10.1021/ac801662n. - DOI - PubMed