Metabolomics meta-analysis finds metabolites associated with prostate cancer risk, including lethal diseaseCould a simple blood test one day predict aggressive prostate cancer?

BACKGROUND: Metabolomic dysregulation contributes to prostate cancer (PCa) pathogenesis, and studies suggest that circulating metabolites have strong potential to act as clinical biomarkers. However, evidence of associations between circulating metabolites with overall and clinically significant PCa risk has not been quantitively aggregated. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of untargeted pre-diagnostic circulating metabolomic studies across four clinically distinct outcomes: overall, low- to intermediate-risk, high- to very high-risk, and lethal PCa, each compared to controls. RESULTS: Twelve studies were identified in the systematic review, and up to 408 metabolites were meta-analysed across the four PCa outcomes. Three, eleven, and nineteen metabolites were significantly associated with risk of overall, high- to very high-risk, and lethal PCa, respectively. Metabolites associated with high- to very high-risk PCa were significantly enriched for lipids. Limited evidence of correlation between metabolite effects across outcomes was identified, highlighting potentially unique metabolite drivers of high-risk and lethal PCa. In follow-up analyses, 13 of the significant metabolites were found to be modifiable by drugs and/or diet. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a strong potential for metabolites to inform risk of lethal PCa, which could inform risk-stratified screening strategies and facilitate the identification of targets for PCa prevention.