Abstract
Despite progress in early detection and therapeutic strategies, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women globally. Due to the heterogeneity and complexity of tumor biology, breast cancer patients with similar diagnosis might have different prognosis and response to treatment. Thus, deeper understanding of individual tumor properties is necessary. Cancer cells must be able to convert nutrients to biomass while maintaining energy production, which requires reprogramming of central metabolic processes in the cells. This phenomenon is increasingly recognized as a potential target for treatment, but also as a source for biomarkers that can be used for prognosis, risk stratification and therapy monitoring. Magnetic resonance (MR) metabolomics is a widely used approach in translational research, aiming to identify clinically relevant metabolic biomarkers or generate novel understanding of the molecular biology in tumors. Ex vivo proton high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR MAS) MR spectroscopy is widely used to study central metabolic processes in a non-destructive manner. Here we review the current status for HR MAS MR spectroscopy findings in breast cancer in relation to glucose, amino acid and choline metabolism.
Highlights
Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide [1]
A study showed that a delay of freezing breast tumor tissue samples of up to 30 min after resection did not significantly change the levels of individual metabolites measured by high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR MAS) Magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy [22]
This technique has been applied to study metabolites involved in the cancer-relevant pathways of glucose metabolism, amino acid metabolism and choline phospholipid metabolism
Summary
Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide [1]. In Norway, there were 3415 diagnosed breast cancer cases among women in 2015 [2], making it the most frequent neoplasm in this population group. This review focuses on relevant findings on metabolic profiling of intact breast cancer tissue using high resolution magic angle spinning (HR MAS). Ex vivo HR MAS MR spectroscopy is widely used to study central metabolic processes related to cancer progression It gives qualitative and quantitative metabolic information from biological tissue with minimal sample preparation. A study showed that a delay of freezing breast tumor tissue samples of up to 30 min after resection did not significantly change the levels of individual metabolites measured by HR MAS MR spectroscopy [22]. Metabolic profiling alone and in combination with complementary methods provides important information on cancer biology, making HR MAS MR spectroscopy an attractive method due to its non-destructive nature [23]. Glycolysis, the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation yield two, two and thirty-two molecules of ATP, respectively (Figure 3), and together comprise cellular respiration
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