Exhaled breath analysis for gastric cancer diagnosis in Colombian patients

Abstract

We present here the first study that directly correlates gastric cancer (GC) with specific biomarkers in the exhaled breath composition on a South American population, which registers one of the highest global incidence rates of gastric affections. Moreover, we demonstrate a novel solid state sensor that predicts correct GC diagnosis with 97% accuracy. Alveolar breath samples of 30 volunteers (patients diagnosed with gastric cancer and a controls group formed of patients diagnosed with other gastric diseases) were collected and analyzed by gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) and with an innovative chemical gas sensor based on gold nanoparticles (AuNP) functionalized with octadecylamine ligands. Our GC-MS analyses identified 6 volatile organic compounds that showed statistically significant differences between the cancer patients and the controls group. These compounds were different from those identified in previous studied performed on other populations with high incidence rates of this malady, such as China (representative for Eastern Asia region) and Latvia (representative for Baltic States), attributable to lifestyle, alimentation and genetics differences. A classification model based on principal component analysis of our sensor data responses to the breath samples yielded 97% accuracy, 100% sensitivity and 93% specificity. Our results suggest a new and non-intrusive methodology for early diagnosis of gastric cancer that may be deployed in regions lacking well-developed health care systems as a prediagnosis test for selecting the patients that should undergo deeper investigations (e.g., endoscopy and biopsy).

The Volatilomic Footprints of Human HGC-27 and CLS-145 Gastric Cancer Cell Lines

“…In that study, they reported 12 compounds (pentanoic acid, hexanoic acid, phenol, methyl phenol, ethyl phenol, butanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, and decanal) showing significantly higher concentrations ( p < 0.05) in the gastric cancer patients than in the noncancer controls. Durán-Acevedo et al ( 2018 ) employed in parallel gold nanoparticles (AuNP) gas sensor and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to determine gastric cancer signatures in human breath. The GC-MS study resulted in the recognition of six VOCs that showed statistically significant differences between the cancer patients ( n = 14) and the control group ( n = 15).…”

Non-Invasive Method to Detect Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Wild Boar by Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds Obtained from Feces with an Electronic Nose System

“…For performing this study, we built an electronic nose system comprising an array of cross-reactive chemical gas sensors based on organically-functionalized gold nanoparticles. This kind of sensors demonstrated very good suitability for detecting low VOC concentrations in biological samples, and room temperature operation that is a key feature of these nanomaterials [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Challenges and Opportunities in Cancer Metabolomics

“…Due to the ease and less invasive nature of sampling from systemic biofluids such as plasma, serum, urine, saliva, sweat, and breath, most human studies have focused on these matrices, which typically are confounded with factors such as exposome, diet, internal and exterior microbiome, and the diverse genetic heterozygosity that make cancer epidemiological studies challenging. Newer matrices such as exhaled breath, exhaled breath condensate, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid provide newer opportunities and challenges associated with sample preparation, metabolomic analysis, and assignment of metabolic biomarkers. However, these signals and biomarkers may or may not truly represent disease status, especially when conducted in underpowered study designs that fail to detect a true effect.…”