Efficacy of Analytical Technologies in Metabolomics Studies of the Gastrointestinal Cancers

Abstract

According to the reports of the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, cancer is the second leading cause of human death worldwide. However, early-stage detection of cancers can efficiently enhance the chance of therapy and saving lives. Metabolomics strategies apply a variety of approaches to discover new potential diagnoses, prognoses, and/or therapeutic biomarkers of various diseases. Metabolomics aims to identify and measure different low-molecular-weight biomolecules in physiological environments. In these studies, special metabolites are extracted from biological samples and identified using analytical techniques. Afterward, using data processing programs discovering significantly associated biomarkers is pursued. In the present review, we aimed to discuss recently reported analytical approaches on the metabolomics studies of gastrointestinal cancers including gastric, colorectal, and esophageal cancers. The gas- and liquid-chromatography with different detectors have been shown that are the main analytical techniques and for metabolites quantification, nuclear magnetic resonance has been utilized as a master method.

Keywords:

• Analytical technique
• biomarker
• gastrointestinal cancers
• metabolomics

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

All authors have made substantial contributions to the conception and drafting of the manuscript, revising it and final approval of the version to be submitted.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Pharmaceutical Analysis Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (grant number=65306).