Detection of Pancreatic Cancer by Urine Volatile Organic Compound Analysis

• Published in: Anticancer research Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 73 - 79
• Main Authors: Nissinen, Samuli I, Roine, Antti, Hokkinen, Lauri, Karjalainen, Markus, Venäläinen, Markus, Helminen, Heli, Niemi, Riikka, Lehtimäki, Terho, Rantanen, Tuomo, Oksala, Niku
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greece International Institute of Anticancer Research 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Cancer; Diagnosis; Discriminant analysis; Ionic mobility; Lesions; Organic compounds; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatitis; Patients; Spectrometry; Urine; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; urine test; linear discriminant analysis; volatile organic compound; FAIMS; Pancreatic cancer; pre-malignant lesion
• ISSN: 0250-7005; 1791-7530
• DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.13081

Most pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, since the diagnosis is demanding. Field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is a sensitive technique used for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC). We evaluated the ability of FAIMS to discriminate between pancreatic cancer and healthy controls from a urine sample. For a proof-of-concept study in three Finnish hospitals, 68 patients with pancreatic cancer, 36 with acute pancreatitis, 18 with chronic pancreatitis, 8 with pancreatic pre-malign lesions and 52 healthy controls were prospectively recruited. Urine samples were collected at the time of diagnosis and stored at -70°C. The samples were subsequently measured with FAIMS. The data were processed with linear discriminant analysis and cross-validated with leave-one-out cross-validation. FAIMS distinguished pancreatic cancer from controls with a sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 79%. As a non-invasive and rapid urine test, FAIMS can discriminate patients with pancreatic cancer from healthy controls.