Metabolomics can be applied to oncometabolism, since the changes in cancer's genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiles can result in changes in downstream metabolic pathways. With this information we can elucidate the responsible pathways and oncometabolites for various diseases. Actually, through the use of this technique, the dysregulation of the pyruvate kinase enzyme in glucose metabolism was discovered in cancer cells. Another common used technique is glucose or glutamine labeled with 13C to show that the TCA cycle is used to generate large amounts of fatty acids (phospholipids) and to replenish the TCA cycle intermediates. But oncometabolomics does not necessarily need to be used on cancer cells, but on cells immediately surrounding them in the TME.
Metabolomics applied to cancer has the potential to significantly improve current oncological treatments and has a great diagnostic value, since metabolic changes are the prequel of phenotypic changes in cells (thus tissues and organs) making it suitable for early detection of difficult-to-detect cancers. This also leads to a more personalized medicine and customize an individual's cancer treatment according to their specific oncometabolite profiles, which would allow for better cancer therapy customization or informed adjustments.