Objectives: The aim was to investigate the free fatty acid (FFA) metabolic profiles and to identify biomarkers that can be used to distinguish patients with breast cancer (BC) from benign (BE) patients or healthy controls.
Design and methods: A total of 114 subjects were divided into the following three groups: BC patients, BE patients and controls. The FFA profiles in three groups were studied by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with multivariate statistical analysis.
Results: Three saturated fatty acids (C14:0, C16:0 and C18:0) and three unsaturated fatty acids (C18:2, C18:3 and C20:5) in BC were significantly different than controls. Palmitic acid, stearic acid, linoleic acid and total FFA were identified as potential biomarkers distinguished BC from the other groups.
Conclusion: The alterations of FFA could reflect underlying metabolic changes in BC patients, and this study has demonstrated that FFA biomarkers might be helpful for prevention and characterization of BC patients.
Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.