Metabolomics workflow for lung cancer: Discovery of biomarkers

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Due to the limitations of current diagnostic techniques and methods, most lung cancers are diagnosed at the advanced stage, which is not conducive to early treatment. The rise of metabolomics has provided new ideas for the early diagnosis of lung cancer. As a method for the comprehensive analysis of endogenous metabolites of the biological system, metabolomics has shown significant application potential for the early diagnosis and individualized treatment of various cancers including lung cancers. Via advanced analytical techniques and bioinformatics tools, the metabolome was excavated to find biomarkers related to cancer and its prognosis. In this review, the research methods and workflow of metabolomics are summarized, with an emphasis on the recent discovery of biomarkers and major metabolic pathways for lung cancers.