Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics and metabolic pathway networks from patient-matched esophageal carcinoma, adjacent noncancerous tissues and urine

Table 3 Potential tissue biomarkers for discriminating esophageal cancer tissue from adjacent noncancerous tissue

Metabolite	Chemicalshift, ppm	Fold difference		AUC (95%CI)	Related metabolic pathways
		ECT / ANT	P value
Valine	0.96–0.99 1.02–1.04	1.63 ↑	< 0.001	0.988 (0.889-1.000)	Amino acid metabolism
Leucine	0.93–0.95	1.32 ↑	< 0.001	0.852 (0.705-0.944)	Amino acid metabolism
Glutamate	1.97–2.08 2.32–2.39	1.30 ↑	< 0.001	0.930 (0.803-0.986)	Glutaminolysis, TCA cycle
Acetate	1.88–1.93	1.33 ↑	0.001	0.790 (0.632-0.902)	SCFA metabolism
Alanine	1.43–1.48	1.44 ↑	< 0.001	0.920 (0.789-0.982)	Amino acid metabolism, Gluconeogenesis
Choline	3.19–3.22	1.59 ↑	< 0.001	0.980 (0.876-1.000)	Choline metabolism, Lipid metabolism
Succinate	2.39–2.40	2.12 ↑	0.009	0.738 (0.575-0.864)	TCA cycle
Citrate	2.68–2.71	1.42 ↑	< 0.001	0.942 (0.820-0.991)	TCA cycle
Glucose	3.37–3.44 3.50–3.52	0.72 ↓	< 0.001	0.928 (0.800-0.985)	Glycolysis, TCA cycle
Creatinine	3.02–3.03 4.04–4.06	0.64 ↓	< 0.001	0.963 (0.849-0.997)	Urea metabolism, Creatine metabolism
Glycine	3.52–3.55	0.75 ↓	< 0.001	0.850 (0.702-0.943)	Amino acid metabolism
Threonine	3.58–3.62	0.60 ↓	< 0.001	0.933 (0.806-0.987)	Amino acid metabolism
Creatine	3.90–3.94	0.78 ↓	< 0.001	0.917 (0.786-0.981)	Urea metabolism, Creatine metabolism
Glutamine	2.42–2.48	0.77 ↓	< 0.001	0.895 (0.757-0.969)	Glutaminolysis, TCA cycle
Taurine	3.24–3.28 3.33–3.34	0.78 ↓	< 0.001	0.878 (0.735-0.960)	Amino acid metabolism

ANT: Adjacent noncancerous tissue; ECT: Esophageal cancer tissue; AUC: Area under the curve; TCA: Tricarboxylic acid.