Angioli Roberto, Santonico Marco, Pennazza Giorgio, Montera Roberto, Luvero Daniela, Gatti Alessandra, Zompanti Alessandro, Finamore Panaiotis, Incalzi Raffaele Antonelli
Unit of Gynecology, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 200, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Unit of Electronics for Sensor Systems, Department of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and One Health, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128 Rome, Italy.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2024 Mar 6;14(5):561. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14050561.
Ovarian cancer (OC) is the eighth most common cancer in women. Since screening programs do not exist, it is often diagnosed in advanced stages. Today, the detection of OC is based on clinical examination, transvaginal ultrasound (US), and serum biomarker (Carbohydrate Antigen 125 (CA 125) and Human Epididymis Protein 4 (HE4)) dosage, with a sensitivity of 88% and 95%, respectively, and a specificity of 84% for US and 76% for biomarkers. These methods are clearly not enough, and OC in its early stages is often missed. Many scientists have recently focused their attention on volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These are gaseous molecules, found in the breath, that could provide interesting information on several diseases, including solid tumors. To detect VOCs, an electronic nose was invented by a group of researchers. A similar device, the e-tongue, was later created to detect specific molecules in liquids. For the first time in the literature, we investigated the potential use of the electronic nose and the electronic tongue to detect ovarian cancer not just from breath but also from urine, blood, and plasma samples.
卵巢癌（OC）是女性中第八大常见癌症。由于不存在筛查项目，它常常在晚期才被诊断出来。如今，OC的检测基于临床检查、经阴道超声（US）以及血清生物标志物（糖类抗原125（CA 125）和人附睾蛋白4（HE4））检测，其灵敏度分别为88%和95%，US的特异性为84%，生物标志物的特异性为76%。这些方法显然还不够，早期OC常常被漏诊。最近，许多科学家将注意力集中在了挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）上。这些是在呼出气体中发现的气态分子，它们可能为包括实体瘤在内的多种疾病提供有价值的信息。为了检测VOCs，一组研究人员发明了电子鼻。后来又制造了类似的设备——电子舌，用于检测液体中的特定分子。在文献中，我们首次研究了电子鼻和电子舌不仅从呼出气体，还从尿液、血液和血浆样本中检测卵巢癌的潜在用途。
