Metabolomics in predicting the hallmark of cancer metabolism

An understanding of the intricacy of cancer metabolism can decipher signaling pathways, malignant properties, and the heterogeneity of cancer. Metabolites are closely integrated with different biological regulatory processes associated with various factors, including environmental factors, genetic variation, and altered levels of enzymes; hence, it is close to phenotypes than genome to proteome. Cancer is known as a multistep process of disease manifestation, and changes in metabolic programming are considered a major hallmark of cancer. Tumor associated metabolites play important roles in proliferative signals, cell death resistance, replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion in the tumor microenvironment. Metabolomics is an emerging field with enormous potential for discovering novel targets for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Metabolomics has aided in the identification of novel immunometabolism pathways and has the potential to incorporate a new diagnostic and personalized therapy regimen. In this book chapter, we will discuss metabolomics approaches in cancer and how metabolomics is incorporated into developing hallmarks in cancer.