Abstract
The metabolomics approach using blood samples from epidemiologic studies has the potential to elucidate pathways or uncover biomarkers for breast cancer outcomes. Therefore, understanding the within-person reproducibility of the blood metabolome and the factors that influence metabolite levels over time in breast cancer survivors are crucial, but these remain largely unknown.
We estimated the within-person reproducibility of plasma metabolites in 61 Black breast cancer survivors from the Women’s Circle of Health Follow-Up Study. Samples were collected from each participant at two time points, approximately 2 and 3 years after diagnosis. Untargeted metabolomic profiles were analyzed by Metabolon using ultrahigh-performance LC/MS-MS. We calculated the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for each metabolite by dividing the between-person variance by the total variance. ICCs were compared across preanalytic factors (e.g., fasting) and participant characteristics using the Wilcoxon test.
Among 857 named metabolites, the median ICC was 0.58 (IQR: 0.44–0.70). Of the metabolites, 16.6% showed high within-person reproducibility (ICC ≥ 0.75), spanning all metabolite classes, whereas 65.6% had an ICC within 0.4 to 0.75, and 17.9% had an ICC < 0.4. Reasonable ICCs were also observed for nonfasting samples (median 0.53, IQR: 0.39–0.67), although lower than those for fasting samples (median 0.63, IQR: 0.45–0.77). ICCs were slightly lower in younger, nonobese participants and in women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer.
The within-person reproducibility of plasma metabolites over 1 year among breast cancer survivors was generally acceptable.
A single-timepoint measurement could be useful in evaluating associations between metabolites and breast cancer outcomes.
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