ArticleCancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology2013
Metabolomics in epidemiology: sources of variability in metabolite measurements and implications.
Article in Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 127 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
127 citing papers in PubMed, 172 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identification and validation of poly-metabolite scores for diets high in ultra-processed food: An observational study and post-hoc randomized controlled crossover-feeding trial.PLoS medicine · 2025Trial
- Metabolomic Profiling of an Ultraprocessed Dietary Pattern in a Domiciled Randomized Controlled Crossover Feeding Trial.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Trial
- Reliability of Serum Metabolites over a Two-Year Period: A Targeted Metabolomic Approach in Fasting and Non-Fasting Samples from EPIC.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Metabolomics in nutritional epidemiology: identifying metabolites associated with diet and quantifying their potential to uncover diet-disease relations in populations.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2014Trial
- Metabolomic profile of response to supplementation with β-carotene in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2013Trial
- Metabolomics in breast cancer: insights into treatment responses, disease progression, and prognostic assessment.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2026Review
- Metabolomics of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure: Advances in LC-MS technology and applications.Journal of food and drug analysis · 2026Review
- Metabolomics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted metabolomics in the diagnosis of non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections: progress and challenges.New microbes and new infections · 2026Review
- Application of Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics and Machine Learning in the Diagnostics of Lyme Neuroborreliosis.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Residential green space, air pollution, and related metabolites in association with depression among cancer survivors.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Longitudinal, Intra-Individual Stability of Untargeted Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid Metabolites.Metabolites · 2025Article
- Longitudinal, intra-individual stability of untargeted plasma and cerebrospinal fluid metabolites.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Plasma metabolomic signature of breastfeeding and risk of cardiometabolic diseases.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cytokine and Metabolomic Signatures of Mepolizumab Response Across Upper and Lower Airway Compartments in Severe Eosinophilic Asthma: An Exploratory Analysis.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Postpartum metabolomics profile predicts 8-years postdelivery women's subclinical atherosclerosis measures.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Body Mass Index Modifies Associations Between Diet Quality and Circulating Metabolites: The CARDIA Study, 2005 to 2006.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Reproducibility of Plasma Metabolome over 1 Year in a Population-Based Cohort of Black Breast Cancer Survivors.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2025Article
- Perturbations in the blood metabolome up to a decade before prostate cancer diagnosis in 4387 matched case-control sets from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Physical activity, metabolites, and breast cancer associations.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025Article
- The need for a cancer exposome atlas: a scoping review.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2025Article
67 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMetabolite levels within an individual vary over time. This within-individual variability, coupled with technical variability, reduces the power for epidemiologic studies to detect associations with disease. Here, the authors assess the variability of a large subset of metabolites and evaluate the implications for epidemiologic studies.
methodsUsing liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) platforms, 385 metabolites were measured in 60 women at baseline and year-one of the Shanghai Physical Activity Study, and observed patterns were confirmed in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening study.
resultsAlthough the authors found high technical reliability (median intraclass correlation = 0.8), reliability over time within an individual was low. Taken together, variability in the assay and variability within the individual accounted for the majority of variability for 64% of metabolites. Given this, a metabolite would need, on average, a relative risk of 3 (comparing upper and lower quartiles of "usual" levels) or 2 (comparing quartiles of observed levels) to be detected in 38%, 74%, and 97% of studies including 500, 1,000, and 5,000 individuals. Age, gender, and fasting status factors, which are often of less interest in epidemiologic studies, were associated with 30%, 67%, and 34% of metabolites, respectively, but the associations were weak and explained only a small proportion of the total metabolite variability.
conclusionMetabolomics will require large, but feasible, sample sizes to detect the moderate effect sizes typical for epidemiologic studies. IMPACT: We offer guidelines for determining the sample sizes needed to conduct metabolomic studies in epidemiology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.