Serum nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics and outcome in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients – a pilot study

Abstract

The prognosis for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients with early relapse or refractory disease is dismal. To determine if clinical outcome correlated to diverse serum metabolomic profiles, we used ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and compared two groups of DLBCL patients treated with immunochemotherapy: i) refractory/early relapse (REF/REL; n=27) and ii) long-term progression-free (CURED; n = 60). A supervised multivariate analysis showed a separation between the groups. Among discriminating metabolites higher in the REF/REL group were the amino acids lysine and arginine, the degradation product cadaverine and a compound in oxidative stress (2-hydroxybutyrate). In contrast, the amino acids aspartate, valine and ornithine, and a metabolite in the glutathione cycle, pyroglutamate, were higher in CURED patients. Together, our data indicate that NMR-based serum metabolomics can identify a signature for DLBCL patients with high-risk of failing immunochemotherapy, prompting for larger validating studies which could lead to more individualized treatment of this disease.

Keywords:

• DLBCL
• metabolomics
• outcome
• serum

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Medical Society, the Gothenburg Medical Society, the Cancer and Development Foundation of Borås and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/10428194.2016.1140164.