Laboratory of Extraction and Separation Methods (LAMES), Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Campus II - Samambaia, 74690-900, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Clinical Hospital, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Campus I - Colemar Natal e Silva, 74605-020, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 13;9(1):11722. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48121-4.
Cancer is the deadliest human disease and the development of new diagnosis methods is important to increase the chances of a cure. In this work it was developed a new method, named here for the first time as cerumenogram, using cerumen (earwax) as a new biomatrix for diagnosis. Earwax samples collected from cancer patients (cancer group) and cancer-free patients (control group) were analyzed by Headspace/Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HS/GC-MS), following with multivariate analysis steps to process the raw data generated. In total, 158 volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) were identified in the cerumen samples. The 27 selected as potential VOMs biomarkers for cancer provided 100% discrimination between the cancer and control groups. This new test can thus be routinely employed for cancer diagnoses that is non-invasive, fast, cheap, and highly accurate.
癌症是人类最致命的疾病，开发新的诊断方法对于提高治愈机会非常重要。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种新方法，首次命名为耳垢图谱（cerumenogram），使用耳垢作为一种新的生物基质进行诊断。我们分析了来自癌症患者（癌症组）和无癌症患者（对照组）的耳垢样本，采用顶空/气相色谱-质谱联用技术（HS/GC-MS），并结合多元分析步骤对生成的原始数据进行处理。在耳垢样本中总共鉴定出 158 种挥发性有机代谢物（VOMs）。作为癌症潜在 VOMs 生物标志物的 27 种物质能够 100%区分癌症组和对照组。因此，这种新的测试可以常规用于癌症诊断，它是非侵入性的、快速的、廉价的、并且高度准确的。
