Analysis of Urinary Metabolic Signatures of Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence after Surgical Removal Using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

The objective of present study was to offer insights into the metabolic responses of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to surgical resection and the metabolic signatures latent in early HCC recurrence (one year after operation). Urinary metabolic profiling employing gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF MS) was utilized to investigate the complex physiopathologic regulations in HCC after operational intervention. It was revealed that an intricate series of metabolic regulations including energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, nucleoside metabolism, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, gut floral metabolism, etc., principally leading to the direction of biomass synthesis, could be observed after tumor surgical removal. Moreover, metabolic differences between recurrent and nonrecurrent patients had emerged 7 days after initial operation. The metabolic signatures of HCC recurrence principally comprised notable up-regulations of lactate excretion, succinate production, purine and pyrimidine nucleosides turnover, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, aromatic amino acid turnover, cysteine and methionine metabolism, and glyoxylate metabolism, similar to metabolic behaviors of HCC burden. Sixteen metabolites were found to be significantly increased in the recurrent patients compared with those in nonrecurrent patients and healthy controls. Five metabolites (ethanolamine, lactic acid, acotinic acid, phenylalanine and ribose) were further defined; they were favorable to the prediction of early recurrence.