Background: Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. With a predicted 2.4-fold rise in liver cancer incidence by 2020, there is an urgent need for early, inexpensive diagnostic biomarkers to deploy in the clinic.
Methods: We employed ultraperformance liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (UPLC/MS-MS) for the quantitation of four metabolites, creatine riboside (CR), N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), cortisol sulfate, and a lipid molecule designated as 561+, in urine samples from the NCI-MD cohort comprising 98 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, 101 high-risk subjects, and 95 controls. Validation was carried out in the TIGER-LC cohort [n = 370 HCC and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) cases, 471 high-risk subjects, 251 controls], where ICC, the second most common primary hepatic malignancy, is highly prevalent. Metabolite quantitation was also conducted in TIGER-LC tissue samples (n = 48 ICC; n = 51 HCC).
Results: All profiled metabolites were significantly increased in liver cancer when compared with high-risk subjects and controls in the NCI-MD study. In the TIGER-LC cohort, the four-metabolite profile was superior at classifying ICC than a clinically utilized marker, CA19-9, and their combination led to a significantly improved model (AUC = 0.88, P = 4E-8). Metabolites CR and NANA were significantly elevated in ICC when compared with HCC cases in both urine and tissue samples. High levels of CR were associated with poorer prognosis in ICC.
Conclusions: Four metabolites are significantly increased in HCC and ICC and are robust at classifying ICC in combination with the clinically utilized marker CA19-9.
Impact: Noninvasive urinary metabolite biomarkers hold promise for diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of ICC.
©2019 American Association for Cancer Research.