title: Elevated levels of hydroxylated phosphocholine lipids in the blood serum of breast cancer patients.
abstract: The difference in serum phospholipid content between stage-IV breast cancer patients and disease-free individuals was studied by employing a combination of chemometric statistical analysis tools and mass spectrometry. Chloroform-extracted serum samples were profiled for their lipid class composition and structure using precursor ion, neutral loss, and product ion tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) scanning experiments. Changes in the relative abundance of phospholipids in serum as a consequence of cancer progression, measured through electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry of flow-injected serum samples collected from 25 disease-free individuals and 50 patients diagnosed with stage-IV breast cancer, were statistically evaluated using principal component analysis (PCA), analysis of variance (ANOVA) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Lipids whose abundance changed significantly as a consequence of cancer progression were structurally characterized using product ion spectra, and independently quantified using precursor ion scan experiments against an internal standard of known concentration. Phosphocholine lipids that displayed a statistically significant change as a consequence of cancer progression were found to contain an oxidized fatty acid moiety as determined by MS3 experiments.
authors.affiliation: METACyt Biochemical Analysis Center, Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Loubna A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Hammad
authors.forename: Guangxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Marwa M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Saleh
authors.forename: Iveta
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Klouckova
authors.forename: Lacey E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Dobrolecki
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hickey
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schnaper
authors.forename: Milos V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Novotny
authors.forename: Yehia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mechref
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006900:Hydroxylation; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D010743:Phospholipids