Plasma metabolite profiling and chemometric analyses of tobacco snuff dippers and patients with oral cancer: Relationship between metabolic signatures

Background Cancer of oral cavity is a seriously growing problem in many parts of the world. In Indian subcontinent, most of these cases have been attributed to the use of tobacco-related products. This study is focused on the identification of distinguishing metabolites of oral cancer in comparison with tobacco snuff dippers and healthy controls. Methods A total of 234 plasma samples including 62 healthy controls, 81 tobacco snuff dippers, and 91 oral cancer samples were analyzed using mass spectrometry. Results Twenty-nine of 3326 metabolites were found to distinguish among oral cancer, tobacco snuff dippers, and healthy controls using P-value <=.001 and fold change >= 3. Prediction model was generated with an overall accuracy of 89.3%. Two metabolites, that is, stearyl alcohol and sucrose, can be used as predictive biomarkers showing progression of tobacco snuff dippers toward oral cancer. Conclusion The unique metabolite profile gives evidence of a strong correlation between tobacco snuff dipping and oral cancer.