Schmidt Kamila, Podmore Ian
Biomedical Science Research Centre, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Manchester M5 4WT, UK.
J Biomark. 2015;2015:981458. doi: 10.1155/2015/981458. Epub 2015 Mar 30.
An early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are crucial in reducing mortality among people suffering from cancer. There is a lack of characteristic early clinical symptoms in most forms of cancer, which highlights the importance of investigating new methods for its early detection. One of the most promising methods is the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are a diverse group of carbon-based chemicals that are present in exhaled breath and biofluids and may be collected from the headspace of these matrices. Different patterns of VOCs have been correlated with various diseases, cancer among them. Studies have also shown that cancer cells in vitro produce or consume specific VOCs that can serve as potential biomarkers that differentiate them from noncancerous cells. This review identifies the current challenges in the investigation of VOCs as potential cancer biomarkers, by the critical evaluation of available matrices for the in vivo and in vitro approaches in this field and by comparison of the main extraction and detection techniques that have been applied to date in this area of study. It also summarises complementary in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro studies conducted to date in order to try to identify volatile biomarkers of cancer.
早期诊断和适当治疗对于降低癌症患者的死亡率至关重要。大多数癌症形式缺乏典型的早期临床症状，这凸显了研究早期检测新方法的重要性。最有前景的方法之一是分析挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）。VOCs是一类多样的碳基化学物质，存在于呼出气体和生物流体中，可从这些基质的顶空中收集。不同的VOCs模式与各种疾病相关，其中包括癌症。研究还表明，体外癌细胞会产生或消耗特定的VOCs，这些VOCs可作为潜在的生物标志物，将它们与非癌细胞区分开来。本综述通过批判性评估该领域体内和体外方法可用的基质，以及比较迄今为止在该研究领域应用的主要提取和检测技术，确定了将VOCs作为潜在癌症生物标志物研究中的当前挑战。它还总结了迄今为止为试图识别癌症挥发性生物标志物而进行的体内、离体和体外补充研究。
