Multicenter study of lipid biomarkers associated with the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

Preoperative differentiation between intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may be challenging in certain cases. Researchers at two centers in China carried out lipidomic analyses on plasma samples from 50 normal controls (NC), 50 patients with HCC, and 30 patients with ICC, to identify potential diagnostic lipid biomarkers for ICC.The analyses showed that the differential lipid species in the plasma of ICC patients, compared to the NC group, were predominantly phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), shingomyelin (SM), and ceramide (Cer), whereas HCC patients versus NC primarily exhibited differences in phosphatidylcholine (PC), triglyceride (TG), and acylcarnitine (CAR). Notably, relative to the NC group, SM (30:1; O2) was significantly upregulated in the ICC group but downregulated in the HCC group (p<0.05). Compared with conventional tumor markers such as CA19-9 and CEA, SM (30:1; O2) demonstrated superior diagnostic efficacy for ICC (AUC 0.8793; pxtagstartz0.001). Correlation analysis showed that SM (30:1; O2) levels were significantly positively correlated with ICC TNM stage (ρ 0.721; p<0.001), indicating a potential association with tumor progression. The authors conclude that SM (30:1; O2) is a promising biomarker for ICC diagnosis, capable of effectively distinguishing ICC from HCC, and providing valuable guidance for preoperative diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making.