Metabolomic research offers a deeper insight into biochemical changes in
cancer metabolism and is a promising tool for identifying novel
biomarkers. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic potential of metabolites in
prostate cancer (PCa) tissue after radical
prostatectomy. In matched malignant and nonmalignant
prostatectomy samples from 95 PCa patients, aminoadipic
acid,
cerebronic acid,
gluconic acid,
glycerophosphoethanolamine, 2-hydroxybehenic
acid,
isopentenyl pyrophosphate,
maltotriose,
7-methylguanine and
tricosanoic acid were determined within a global metabolite profiling study using gas chromatography/liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The data were related to clinicopathological variables like prostate volume,
tumor stage, Gleason score, preoperative
prostate-specific antigen and disease recurrence in the follow-up. All nine metabolites showed higher concentrations in malignant than in nonmalignant samples except for
gluconic acid and
maltotriose, which had lower levels in
tumors. Receiver -operating characteristics analysis demonstrated a significant discrimination for all metabolites between malignant and nonmalignant tissue with a maximal area under the curve of 0.86 for
tricosanoic acid, whereas no correlation was observed between the metabolite levels and the Gleason score or
tumor stage except for
gluconic acid. Univariate Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that levels of aminoadipic
acid,
gluconic acid and
maltotriose were associated with the biochemical
tumor recurrence (
prostate-specific antigen > 0.2 ng/mL). In multivariate Cox regression analyses, aminoadipic
acid together with
tumor stage and Gleason score remained in a model as independent marker for prediction of biochemical recurrence. This study proved that metabolites in PCa tissue can be used, in combination with traditional clinicopathological factors, as promising diagnostic and prognostic tools.