The need for improved diagnostics in oncology is driving efforts to develop advanced methods for molecular based medicine. For example, the detection of recurrent breast cancer is limited by poorly performing CA markers that are both insensitive and late markers. Because of their sensitivity to biological status, metabolite markers may provide better diagnostic performance and earlier detection, which should result in improved therapy outcomes. We have found that combining MS and NMR methods improves the ability to perform global metabolite profiling, and has revealed a set of biomarkers that are very sensitive and specific for detecting early breast cancer recurrence. The derived metabolite profile is twice as sensitive as the CA 27.29 assay, and detects recurrence 12 months earlier. The profile has been ported to a single MS platform and validated using an independent set of ~100 patient samples. Assay performance, and an outlook of the approach will be discussed.

Development and validation of a metabolite profile for the early detection of breast cancer recurrence

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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