Caenorhabditis elegans as a Diagnostic Aid for Pancreatic Cancer

• Published in: Pancreas Vol. 50; no. 5; p. 673
• Main Authors: Kobayashi, Masanori, Fujita, Akashi, Ogawa, Tomoya, Tanisaka, Yuki, Mizuide, Masafumi, Kondo, Nobuaki, Imaizumi, Yuki, Hirotsu, Takaaki, Ryozawa, Shomei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.05.2021
• Subjects: Aged; Animals; Biological Assay; Biomarkers, Tumor - urine; Caenorhabditis elegans - physiology; Early Detection of Cancer; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Odorants - analysis; Olfactory Perception; Pancreatic Neoplasms - diagnosis; Pancreatic Neoplasms - pathology; Pancreatic Neoplasms - urine; Predictive Value of Tests; Prospective Studies; Reproducibility of Results; Smell
• ISSN: 1536-4828
• DOI: 10.1097/mpa.0000000000001814

Early detection of pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult. A novel cancer diagnostic method using the ability of nematodes to detect odor of urine samples has been developed (N-NOSE). This method has a high sensitivity and specificity for various cancers; however, it has not yet been verified in pancreatic cancer. We examined the usefulness of this method to aid early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in a cancer center. We collected urine samples and clinical data from patients hospitalized in our division, between July 2017 and February 2019. We excluded patients with a known current or past history of other cancers. We investigated the relationship between the results of N-NOSE and the presence of pancreatic cancer. There were 95 noncancer cases and 104 pancreatic cancer cases. The sensitivity and specificity of N-NOSE for pancreatic cancer were 84.6% (88/104) and 60% (57/95), respectively. N-NOSE was able to detect stages 0 to I pancreatic cancer and had a higher correlation with early-stage pancreatic cancer than advanced stage. N-NOSE has sufficient sensitivity and specificity for use in clinical practice, and it holds great potential as a diagnostic aid for pancreatic cancer, especially for early-stage pancreatic cancer.