According to laboratory oncologists, much like genomics aims to unravel the structure of the genome, metabolomics focuses on understanding the many small molecule metabolites that result from a cell's metabolic processes.
There are an estimated 5,000 - 20,000 endogenous human metabolites, and analysing their production gives an accurate picture of the physiology of a cell at a given moment in time.
Whereas the cell’s genotype can predict its physiology to a limited extent, metabolomics also takes phenotype – and therefore environmental conditions – into account, allowing a more precise measure of actual cell physiology.
For research, the study of metabolomics provides the means to measure the effects of a variety of stimuli on individual cells, tissues, and bodily fluids.
By studying how their metabolic profiles change with the introduction of chemicals or the expression of known genes, for example, researchers can more effectively study the immediate impact of disease, nutrition, pharmaceutical treatment, and genetic modifications while using a systems biology approach.
Just as a cancer genome refers to the complete set of genes, the metabolome refers to the complete set of metabolites in a given tumor. You may need to have the metabolome as well as the genome.
There are many reasons why cancer cures remain out of reach, but several changes could be implemented immediately to increase the rate of success. One of them is the need to redouble the efforts in the study of basic metabolism and the growing field of metabolomics (the metabolome).
Sweeping Study Of Cancer Metabolism Identifies Hundreds Of Alterations And Potential
http://cancerfocus.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3952