Metabolomic profiling of dried blood spots reveals gender-specific discriminant models for the diagnosis of small cell lung cancer

Abstract

The accurate diagnosis of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) at initial presentation is essential to ensure appropriate treatment. No validated blood biomarkers that could distinguish SCLC from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has yet been developed. Dried blood spot (DBS) microsampling has gained increasing interest in biomarkers discovery. In this study, we first performed metabolomic profiling of DBS samples from 37 SCLC, 40 NSCLC, and 37 controls. Two gender-specific multianalyte discriminant models were established for males and females, respectively to distinguish SCLC from NSCLC and controls. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed the diagnostic accuracy of 95% (95% CI: 83%-100%) in males SCLC using five metabolites in DBS and 94% (95% CI: 74%-100%) for females using another set of five metabolites. The robustness of the models was confirmed by the random permutation tests (P < 0.01 for both). The performance of the discriminant models was further evaluated using a validation cohort with 78 subjects. The developed discriminant models yielded an accuracy of 91% and 81% for males and females, respectively, in the validation cohort. Our results highlighted the potential clinical utility of the metabolomic profiling of DBS as a convenient and effective approach for the diagnosis of SCLC.

A Noninvasive Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Lung cancer Patients using Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Magnetic Resonance Imaging

“…Differentiating SCLC from NSCLC (large cell carcinoma or basaloid squamous cell carcinoma) using noninvasive methods is essential since the therapeutic strategies and clinical prognoses are significantly different. Several noninvasive blood metabolomic and dynamic multiphase computed tomography (CT) methods have been recently developed to discriminate SCLC and NSCLC [27][28][29][30]. However, blood metabolomic biomarker results that showed the differentiation of SCLC and NSCLC tumor types has not been confirmed with large cohort studies.…”

Metabolomics Analysis and Diagnosis of Lung Cancer: Insights from Diverse Sample Types

“…In subsequent studies, a validation cohort comprising 78 individuals was used to further evaluate the performance of the discriminant model. Results showed that the accuracy rates of the developed discriminant model were 91% for men and 81% for women 82 .…”

Metabolomic analysis for asymptomatic hyperuricemia and gout based on a combination of dried blood spot sampling and mass spectrometry technology

“…It offers a simpler storage and easier transport compared with conventional whole blood sampling, and reduces infection risk by infectious pathogens. The combination of DBS sampling and MS technology can provide a high-throughput, reliable, and stable detection for a broad array of analytes, and has been used in newborn screening and selecting high sensitivity and specificity metabolic biomarkers for some kinds of cancer and cardiovascular diseases [ 19 – 21 ]. However, this technology were seldom used in the study of gout.…”