A serum metabolomics classifier derived from elderly patients with metastatic colorectal cancer predicts relapse in the adjuvant setting

Adjuvant treatment for patients with early stage colorectal cancer (eCRC) is currently based on suboptimal risk stratification, especially for elderly patients. Metabolomics may improve the identification of patients with residual micrometastases after surgery. In this retrospective study, we hypothesized that metabolomic fingerprinting could improve risk stratification in patients with eCRC. Serum samples obtained after surgery from 94 elderly patients with eCRC (65 relapse free and 29 relapsed, after 5-years median follow up), and from 75 elderly patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) obtained before a new line of chemotherapy, were retrospectively analyzed via proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The prognostic role of metabolomics in patients with eCRC was assessed using Kaplan–Meier curves. PCA-CA-kNN could discriminate the metabolomic fingerprint of patients with relapse-free eCRC and mCRC (70.0% accuracy using NOESY spectra). This model was used to classify the samples of patients with relapsed eCRC: 69% of eCRC patients with relapse were predicted as metastatic. The metabolomic classification was strongly associated with prognosis (p-value 0.0005, HR 3.64), independently of tumor stage. In conclusion, metabolomics could be an innovative tool to refine risk stratification in elderly patients with eCRC. Based on these results, a prospective trial aimed at improving risk stratification by metabolomic fingerprinting (LIBIMET) is ongoing.