Big cohort metabolomic profiling of serum for oral squamous cell carcinoma screening and diagnosis

Abstract

The survival rate of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) can be greatly improved if intervention could be initiated as early as possible. This poses a technical demand for developing a sensitive screening and specific in vitro diagnosis method for OSCC. Herewith, a large cohort consisting of 241 healthy contrast (HC) and 578 OSCC patients were recruited for conducting the rapid metabolic profiling of trace volume serum using conductive polymer spray ionization mass spectrometry (CPSI-MS). Statistical analysis picked out 65 metabolite ions as potential characteristic markers for differentiating OSCC from HC. With the aid of a supporting vector machine (SVM), OSCC can be distinguished from HC with an accuracy of 98.0% by cross-validation in the discovery cohort and 89.6% accuracy in the validation cohort. Furthermore, orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) also initially showed the potential for OSCC staging, especially between T1/T2 and T3/T4 stages with an accuracy of 90.1%. CPSI-MS combined with SVM or OPLS-DA can not only quickly distinguish OSCC from HC but also predict the OSCC progression from T1/2 to T3/4 stages in a few minutes, making it a promising tool for both screening and diagnosing high-risk population.

A century ago the Stern-Gerlach experiment ruled unequivocally in favor of Quantum Mechanics

“…The ensuing field of chemical reaction dynamics has remained one of the chief preoccupations of chemical/molecular physics to date [108,109]. While the refinement of mass-spectrometric techniques enabled conclusive elucidations of complex reaction mechanisms in the gas phase [110,111], the development of soft desorption ionization beam methods (electrospray) [112] led to biological and medical applications of molecular beams [113,114]. Spectroscopy of molecular species loaded into or produced within superfluid helium nanodroplets [115][116][117] provided new incisive means to elucidate their structure, reactivity, and solvation [118][119][120].…”

A century ago the Stern-Gerlach experiment ruled unequivocally in favor of Quantum Mechanics

“…The ensuing field of chemical reaction dynamics has remained one of the chief preoccupations of chemical/molecular physics to date [106,107]. While the refinement of mass-spectrometric techniques enabled conclusive elucidations of complex reaction mechanisms in the gas phase [108,109], the development of soft desorption ionization beam methods (electrospray) [110] led to biological and medical applications of molecular beams [111,112]. Spectroscopy of molecular species loaded into or produced within superfluid helium nanodroplets [113][114][115] provided new incisive means to elucidate their structure, reactivity, and solvation [116][117][118].…”

A Century Ago the Stern–Gerlach Experiment Ruled Unequivocally in Favor of Quantum Mechanics

“…[103,104] While the refinement of mass-spectrometric techniques enabled conclusive elucidations of complex reaction mechanisms in the gas phase, [105,106] the development of soft desorption ionization beam methods (electrospray) [107] led to biological and medical applications of molecular beams. [108,109] Spectroscopy of molecular species loaded into or produced within superfluid helium nanodroplets [110][111][112] provided new incisive means to elucidate their structure, reactivity, and solvation. [113][114][115] In the 1990s, a renaissance began in atomic physics, nurtured by the development of techniques to cool and trap atoms.…”