Can metabolomics in addition to genomics add to prognostic and predictive information in breast cancer?

Abstract

Genomic data from breast cancers provide additional prognostic and predictive information that is beginning to be used for patient management. The question arises whether additional information derived from other 'omic' approaches such as metabolomics can provide additional information. In an article published this month in BMC Cancer, Borgan et al. add metabolomic information to genomic measures in breast tumours and demonstrate, for the first time, that it may be possible to further define subgroups of patients which could be of value clinically. See research article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/628.