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. 2022 Dec;306(6):2115-2122.
doi: 10.1007/s00404-022-06558-5. Epub 2022 Apr 25.

How previous treatment changes the metabolomic profile in patients with metastatic breast cancer

Juliane Nees  1 , Simon Schafferer  2 , Baowen Yuan  3   4 , Quiqong Tang  3   4 , Matthias Scheffler  2 , Andreas Hartkopf  5 , Michael Golatta  6 , Andreas Schneeweiß  7 , Barbara Burwinkel #  3   4 , Markus Wallwiener #  6   7
Affiliations

How previous treatment changes the metabolomic profile in patients with metastatic breast cancer

Juliane Nees et al. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: Metabolites are in the spotlight of attention as promising novel breast cancer biomarkers. However, no study has been conducted concerning changes in the metabolomics profile of metastatic breast cancer patients according to previous therapy.

Methods: We performed a retrospective, single-center, nonrandomized, partially blinded, treatment-based study. Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients were enrolled between 03/2010 and 09/2016 at the beginning of a new systemic therapy. The endogenous metabolites in the plasma samples were analyzed using the AbsoluteIDQ® p180 Kit (Biocrates Life Sciences AG, Innsbruck) a targeted, quality and quantitative-controlled metabolomics approach. The statistical analysis was performed using R package, version 3.3.1. ANOVA was used to statistically assess age differences within groups. Furthermore, we analyzed the CTC status of the patients using the CellSearch™ assay.

Results: We included 178 patients in our study. Upon dividing the study population according to therapy before study inclusion, we found the following: 4 patients had received no therapy, 165 chemotherapy, and 135 anti-hormonal therapy, 30 with anti-Her2 therapy and 38 had received treatment with bevacizumab. Two metabolites were found to be significantly different, depending on the further therapy of the patients: methionine and serine. Whereas methionine levels were higher in the blood of patients who received an anti-Her2-therapy, serine was lower in patients with endocrine therapy only.

Conclusion: We identified two metabolites for which concentrations differed significantly depending on previous therapies, which could help to choose the next therapy in patients who have already received numerous different treatments.

Keywords: Circulating tumor cells; Metabolomics; Metastatic breast cancer; Methionine; Serine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Plasma levels of methionine (upper panel) and serine (lower panel) to different previous therapies. CHT chemotherapy, ET endocrine therapy
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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