Utilizing serum metabolomics for assessing postoperative efficacy and monitoring recurrence in gastric cancer patients

(1) This study aims to identify distinct serum metabolites in gastric cancer patients compared to healthy individuals, providing valuable insights into postoperative efficacy evaluation and monitoring of gastric cancer recurrence; (2) Methods: Serum samples were collected from 15 healthy individuals, 16 gastric cancer patients before surgery, 3 months after surgery, 6 months after surgery, and 15 gastric cancer recurrence patients. T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to screen 489 differential metabolites between the preoperative group and the healthy control group. Based on the level of the above metabolites in the recurrence, preoperative, three-month postoperative, and six-month postoperative groups, we further selected 18 significant differential metabolites by ANOVA and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The result of hierarchical clustering analysis about the above metabolites showed that the samples were regrouped into the tumor-bearing group (comprising the original recurrence and preoperative groups) and the tumor-free group (comprising the original three-month postoperative and six-month postoperative groups). Based on the results of PLS-DA, 7 differential metabolites (VIP > 1.0) were further selected to distinguish the tumor-bearing group and the tumor-free group. Finally, the results of hierarchical clustering analysis showed that these 7 metabolites could well identify gastric cancer recurrence; (3) Results: Lysophosphatidic acids, triglycerides, lysine, and sphingosine-1-phosphate were significantly elevated in the three-month postoperative, six-month postoperative, and healthy control groups, compared to the preoperative and recurrence groups. Conversely, phosphatidylcholine, oxidized ceramide, and phosphatidylglycerol were significantly reduced in the three-month postoperative, six-month postoperative, and healthy control groups compared to the preoperative and recurrence groups. However, these substances did not show significant differences between the preoperative and recurrence groups, nor between the three-month postoperative, six-month postoperative, and healthy control groups; (4) Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the presence of distinct metabolites in the serum of gastric cancer patients compared to healthy individuals. Lysophosphatidic acid, triglycerides, lysine, sphingosine-1-phosphate, phosphatidylcholine, oxidized ceramide, and phosphatidylglycerol hold potential as biomarkers for evaluating postoperative efficacy and monitoring recurrence in gastric cancer patients. These metabolites exhibit varying concentrations across different sample categories.