Vol 19, No 4 (2014)

This paper deals with the questions of the metabolomics research results application in medicine. The central idea metabolomics is to identify the specific biomarkers in a biological sample used in a diagnostics. The volatile organic compounds - metabolites isolated from various tissues and biological fluids (blood, urine, sputum, exhaled air) are considered as biomarkers. The paper also describes main methods of separation and identification of volatile organic compounds (gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) applied in metabolomics. The paper presents some results of laboratory research aimed at the detection of different organs ’ cancer biomarkers. The quality characteristics of the metabolome from a biological patient sample with different pathology are discussed. Special attention is paid to the application of metabolomics possibilities in experimental medicine. The presented material will be of some help in solving the problems of early diagnosis of cancer.