Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Br J Cancer. 2010 Aug 10;103(4):542-51. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605810. Epub 2010 Jul 20.
Tumour growth is accompanied by gene and/or protein changes that may lead to peroxidation of the cell membrane species and, hence, to the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, we investigated the ability of a nanosensor array to discriminate between breath VOCs that characterise healthy states and the most widespread cancer states in the developed world: lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers.
Exhaled alveolar breath was collected from 177 volunteers aged 20-75 years (patients with lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers and healthy controls). Breath from cancerous subjects was collected before any treatment. The healthy population was healthy according to subjective patient's data. The breath of volunteers was examined by a tailor-made array of cross-reactive nanosensors based on organically functionalised gold nanoparticles and gas chromatography linked to the mass spectrometry technique (GC-MS).
The results showed that the nanosensor array could differentiate between 'healthy' and 'cancerous' breath, and, furthermore, between the breath of patients having different cancer types. Moreover, the nanosensor array could distinguish between the breath patterns of different cancers in the same statistical analysis, irrespective of age, gender, lifestyle, and other confounding factors. The GC-MS results showed that each cancer could have a unique pattern of VOCs, when compared with healthy states, but not when compared with other cancer types.
The reported results could lead to the development of an inexpensive, easy-to-use, portable, non-invasive tool that overcomes many of the deficiencies associated with the currently available diagnostic methods for cancer.
肿瘤生长伴随着基因和/或蛋白质的变化，这些变化可能导致细胞膜物种的过氧化，从而导致挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）的排放。在这项研究中，我们研究了纳米传感器阵列区分健康状态和世界上最广泛的癌症状态（肺癌、乳腺癌、结直肠癌和前列腺癌）的呼吸挥发性有机化合物的能力。
从 177 名年龄在 20-75 岁的志愿者（患有肺癌、结肠癌、乳腺癌和前列腺癌的患者和健康对照者）中收集肺泡呼出的呼吸。癌症患者的呼吸在任何治疗之前收集。健康人群根据主观患者数据健康。志愿者的呼吸由基于有机功能化金纳米粒子和气相色谱与质谱技术（GC-MS）相连的交叉反应纳米传感器定制阵列进行检查。
结果表明，纳米传感器阵列可以区分“健康”和“癌症”呼吸，并且可以区分不同癌症类型的患者呼吸。此外，纳米传感器阵列可以在相同的统计分析中区分不同癌症的呼吸模式，而与年龄、性别、生活方式和其他混杂因素无关。GC-MS 结果表明，与健康状态相比，每种癌症都可能具有独特的 VOC 模式，但与其他癌症类型相比则不然。
报告的结果可能导致开发出一种廉价、易于使用、便携式、非侵入性的工具，克服了目前癌症诊断方法存在的许多缺陷。
