Metabolic Signatures: Pioneering the Frontier of Rectal Cancer Diagnosis and Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment with Biomarkers-A Systematic Review

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 25; no. 4; p. 2381
• Main Authors: Ciocan, Răzvan Alexandru, Ciocan, Andra, Mihăileanu, Florin Vasile, Ursu, Cristina-Paula, Ursu, Ștefan, Bodea, Cătălin, Cordoș, Ariana-Anamaria, Chiș, Bogdan Augustin, Al Hajjar, Nadim, Dîrzu, Noemi, Dîrzu, Dan-Sebastian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01-02-2024
• Subjects: Adjuvant treatment; Amino acids; Antigens; Biological markers; Biomarkers; Biopsy; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Chromatography; Colorectal cancer; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Health aspects; Human subjects; Mass spectrometry; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Medical screening; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolism; Metabolites; metabolomics; Metastasis; neoadjuvant treatment; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Patients; Prognosis; Proteomics; rectal cancer; Scientific imaging; Systematic review; Tumors; Massachusetts; Romania; United States > US; metabolomics; biomarkers; rectal cancer; neoadjuvant treatment
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms25042381

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most aggressive, heterogenous, and fatal types of human cancer for which screening, and more effective therapeutic drugs are urgently needed. Early-stage detection and treatment greatly improve the 5-year survival rate. In the era of targeted therapies for all types of cancer, a complete metabolomic profile is mandatory before neoadjuvant therapy to assign the correct drugs and check the response to the treatment given. The aim of this study is to discover specific metabolic biomarkers or a sequence of metabolomic indicators that possess precise diagnostic capabilities in predicting the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy. After searching the keywords, a total of 108 articles were identified during a timeframe of 10 years (2013-2023). Within this set, one article was excluded due to the use of non-English language. Six scientific papers were qualified for this investigation after eliminating all duplicates, publications not referring to the subject matter, open access restriction papers, and those not applicable to humans. Biomolecular analysis found a correlation between metabolomic analysis of colorectal cancer samples and poor progression-free survival rates. Biomarkers are instrumental in predicting a patient's response to specific treatments, guiding the selection of targeted therapies, and indicating resistance to certain drugs.