Abstract
Metabolic alterations are known to occur with oncogenesis and tumor progression. During malignant transformation, the metabolism of cells and tissues is altered. Cancer metabolism can be studied using advanced technologies that detect both metabolites and metabolic activities. Identification, characterization, and quantification of metabolites (metabolomics) are important for metabolic analysis and are usually done by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or by mass spectrometry. In contrast to the magnetic resonance imaging that is used to monitor the tumor morphology during progression of the disease and during therapy, in vivo NMR spectroscopy is used to study and monitor tumor metabolism of cells/tissues by detection of various biochemicals or metabolites involved in various metabolic pathways. Several in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo NMR studies using 1H and 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) nuclei have documented increased levels of total choline containing compounds, phosphomonoesters and phosphodiesters in human breast cancer tissues, which is indicative of altered choline and phospholipid metabolism. These levels get reversed with successful treatment. Another method that increases the sensitivity of substrate detection by using nuclear spin hyperpolarization of 13C-lableled substrates by dynamic nuclear polarization has revived a great interest in the study of cancer metabolism. This review discusses breast tissue metabolism studied by various NMR/MRS methods.
Highlights
The second leading cause of death in women worldwide is breast cancer, due to its high incidences of mortality and morbidity
It is known that the basal-like subtype of breast cancer has a poor prognosis, and increased Gly in breast cancer patients with a poor prognosis may be the result of altered glycolysis and/or metabolism of choline. These findings imply that the analysis of breast cancer tissue by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides the metabolic state of a tumor, which provides additional information concerning the prognosis of the breast cancer
The literature consists of vast amount of excellent work on the study of metabolism in breast cancer, ranging from cells to live human tissues using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)/MRS
Summary
The second leading cause of death in women worldwide is breast cancer, due to its high incidences of mortality and morbidity. During malignancy, many of these regulatory pathways are dysregulated, leading to uncontrolled growth and proliferation [1,2] and the cells adopt alternative metabolic pathways [3] These processes are not caused by any one single event, but by multiple events. Classification is based on the analysis of tumor morphology and histopathological detection of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). These molecular features play an important role in making the therapeutic decision. Metabolites 2017, 7, 25 drugs can target metabolic pathways In this direction, non-invasive magnetic resonance (MR) based techniques play an important role in the study of tumor tissue metabolism. The results from the cell-line studies on breast cancer are important to explain and understand the many metabolic features that are observed in ex vivo and in vivo tissues
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