Heatmaps and Variable Importance in Projection scores of serum metabolic profile identified in adult, ageing and ageing Walker 256 tumour-bearing rats. (a–c) Heatmaps of comparison between S versus A; Wi versus S and Wa versus S, respectively; (d–f) Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) scores represents the comparison between S versus A; Wi versus S and Wa versus S, respectively. Legend: (A) control adult rat; (S) control ageing rat; (Wi) ageing tumour-bearing rat in intermediated stage; (Wa) ageing tumour-bearing rat in advanced stage. The red and green boxes indicate high and low abundance ratio, respectively, of the corresponding metabolite.