Cancer metabolomics in basic science perspective

As metabolomics investigates metabolic pathways with the focus on metabolites, it is a suitable approach to address the complex metabolic alteration in cancer. In addition, metabolic profiles are affected by environmental and post-natal changes, and therefore, directly measuring many metabolites may provide epigenetically relevant information in cancer. Despite much development in our understanding of cancer metabolism, focus is often directed to signaling or metabolic proteins that modulate the metabolite levels. In this review, we discuss the “metabolite-oriented view” on cancer metabolism. We cover how metabolomics research contributed to our current insights into the basic mechanism of metabolic alterations leading to cancer. Then, we discuss specific metabolites and related enzymatic pathways directly related with tumorigenesis. We particularly pay attention to how metabolites regulate signaling proteins and metabolic enzymes ultimately leading to cancer phenotypes. Finally, we address future prospects and challenges of metabolomics in cancer research.