نبذة مختصرة : Background: Metabolomics is one of the fastest growing –omics technologies which is most representative for the phenotype of an organism at a specific time point. Small metabolites detected by MR-spectroscopy within human tissue or biofluids such as urine and blood, may serve as important clinical biomarkers or provide vital biological understanding for several diseases. Here we focus on the role of MR-metabolomics in prostate- and breast cancer, and in major non-cancer conditions such as cardiac disease and preeclampsia. Material and methods: This article is based upon a review of available literature within MR-metabolomics and the authors’ experience in use of MR-metabolomics in basic and clinical research on breast cancer, prostate cancer and preeclampsia. Results: MR-metabolomics has proven several diagnostic tissue and biofluid biomarkers for the focused diseases in this paper. Choline-containing metabolites are potential diagnostic cancer markers, while glycine and lactate have proven to be related to survival in breast cancer tissue. The prostate tissue specific citrate and polyamines can separate aggressive from indolent disease, which may be observed by MR-metabolomics in vivo. In preeclamptic blood samples, a lipid distribution with similar pattern as patients with cardiac heart disease have been identified. Conclusion: MR-metabolomics has shown promising potential for biomarker discovery both in tissues and biofluids, but also for providing vital biological understanding on the diseases focused in this paper. The future role of MR-metabolomics in the clinic will depend on large-scale validation studies and standardization of sample preparation, analysis and quantification.
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