Metabolomic profiling identifies biomarkers and metabolic impacts of surgery for colorectal cancer

BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with recurrence and metastasis after surgical resection. This study aimed to identify the physiological changes after surgery and explore metabolites and metabolic pathways with potential prognostic value for CRC. MethodsAn ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography Q-exactive mass spectrometry was used to profile serum metabolites from 67 CRC patients and 50 healthy volunteers. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projections to latent structures-discriminant analysis were used to distinguish the internal characteristics of data in different groups. Multivariate statistics were compiled to screen the significant metabolites and metabolic pathways. ResultA total of 180 metabolites were detected. Under the conditions of variable importance in projection >1 and p-value