The role of metabolomics in the study of cancer biomarkers and in the development of diagnostic tools

Abstract

This chapter introduces the emerging field of metabolomics and its application in the context of cancer biomarker research. Taking advantage of modern high-throughput technologies, and enhanced computational power, metabolomics has a high potential for cancer biomarker identification and the development of diagnostic tools. This chapter describes current metabolomics technologies used in cancer research, starting with metabolomics sample preparation, elaborating on current analytical methodologies for metabolomics measurement and introducing existing software for data analysis. The last part of this chapter deals with the statistical analysis of very large metabolomics datasets and their relevance for cancer biomarker identification.