{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:36:07Z","timestamp":1787027767272,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,22]],"date-time":"2024-11-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1732233600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"ARTAC, the Association for Research on Treatment against Cancer","award":["0001612005"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["0001612005"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cancers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: A fundamental property of cancer cells is their metabolic reprogramming, allowing them to increase glucose uptake and glycolysis. Using a rat colon adenocarcinoma model, we previously showed that blood levels of free methylglyoxal (MG), a side-product of glycolysis, remained normal in animals grafted with a non-growing tumor cell clone, while MG levels were significantly increased and positively correlated with tumor growth in animals grafted with a tumorigenic cell clone issued from the same tumor. Methods: We measured free MG in the blood of cancerous non-diabetic patients and compared the results to healthy subjects and non-cancerous diabetic patients. We also measured free MG in tumors and in the corresponding non-cancer tissues, and the peripheral blood. Results: We show that free MG levels in the peripheral blood of cancer patients are significantly increased in comparison with free MG levels in the peripheral blood of healthy controls (p &lt; 0.0001), and similar to those in the peripheral blood of hyperglycemic diabetic patients (p = 0.965). In addition, we show that repeated free MG level measurement could be used for the therapeutic monitoring of cancer patients. Moreover, we confirmed that free MG is produced by tumor cells at significantly higher levels than cells from their corresponding tissues (p &lt; 0.0001), and is subsequently released in the peripheral blood. Conclusions: Free MG measured in the blood could be a new metabolic biomarker useful for the diagnostic, prognostic and follow-up of non-diabetic patients with cancers, such as bronchus carcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma and glioblastoma, for which there are presently no available useful biomarkers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cancers16233922","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,22]],"date-time":"2024-11-22T12:07:32Z","timestamp":1732277252000},"page":"3922","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Free Methylglyoxal as a Metabolic New Biomarker of Tumor Cell Proliferation in Cancers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9132-2077","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dominique","family":"Belpomme","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cancer Clinical Research, Paris V University Hospital, 75005 Paris, France"},{"name":"European Cancer and Environment Research Institute (ECERI), 1000 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"St\u00e9phanie","family":"Lacomme","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre de Ressources Biologiques, BB-0033-00035, CHRU, 54500 Nancy, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cl\u00e9ment","family":"Poletti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire Bioavenir, 57000 Metz, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Laurent","family":"Bonesso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Pasteur University Hospital, 06000 Nice, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Charlotte","family":"Hinault-Boyer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Pasteur University Hospital, 06000 Nice, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, INSERM U1065, C3M, 06000 Nice, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sylvie","family":"Barbier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire Bioavenir, 57000 Metz, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3375-7192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Philippe","family":"Irigaray","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"European Cancer and Environment Research Institute (ECERI), 1000 Brussels, Belgium"},{"name":"Association for Research on Treatment Against Cancer (ARTAC), 75015 Paris, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"WHO (2022). 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