Tumour metabolites have also been shown to correlate with tumour-specific genetic mutations, for example, IDH1 mutation in glioma, SDH and VHL mutations in paraganglioma and MYCN amplification in neuroblastoma (Peet et al, 2007; Imperiale et al, 2013; Esmaeili et al, 2014). Here, MYCN is linked to neoplasm.