Patients with stage I to III small cell lung cancer have significantly different serum metabolites than those with high-risk disease, and metabolites are expected to be potential lung cancer biomarkers, according to the results of a study presented at the 2014 Thorax Conference, Oct. 23-31 in Texas. ”The results suggest that patients with lung cancer have altered metabolic processes,” said Peter J. Mazzone, one of the study’s authors and director of the Lung Cancer Program at the Cleveland Medical Center Respiratory Institute. “This information could lead the way in the development of biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer.” Mazzone and colleagues collected sera from 94 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (median age, 68.7 years). Of these patients, 50 had adenocarcinoma of the lung and 44 had squamous cell carcinoma. the number of stage I patients was 44%, stage II patients 17%, and stage III patients 39%. As a control, a high-risk population of 190 adults (median age, 66.2 years) was included. These individuals had age, sex, smoking history, COPD, diabetes and lipid profiles comparable to those of the affected population. The researchers compared serum samples from the two groups. A total of 534 metabolites were measured in eight metabolic superpathways, including amino acid, lipid, and bioheterologue superpathways. and 73 sub-pathways. The results revealed that the concentration of 70 metabolites was significantly lower in lung cancer patients than in the control population, and its 79 metabolites were significantly higher than in the control population. Multiple comparative analyses revealed significant differences in the concentrations of 65 metabolites in adenocarcinoma patients compared to the control population. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma had significantly different concentrations of 50 metabolites compared to the control population. However, metabolites were not significantly different in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Serum metabolites in patients with stage I to III non-small cell lung cancer differed from the control population. Distinguishing between small molecule metabolite types allows us to identify individuals with lung cancer and facilitate early detection of lung cancer in high-risk populations.