A "breathalyser" for lung cancer?

Determination of breath gas composition of lung cancer patients using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with monolithic material sorptive extraction

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method with monolithic material sorptive extraction (MMSE) pretreatment was developed to determine the breath gas composition in lung cancer patients. MonoTrap silica monolithic and hybrid adsorbent was selected as the extraction medium during MMSE, given its strong capacity to extract volatile organic compounds (VOC) from exhaled gas. Under the appropriate conditions, high extraction efficiency was achieved. Using the selected ion-monitoring mode, the limit of detection (signal-to-noise ratio 3) for the benzene series was 0.012-2.172 ng L(-1) . The limit of quantitation (signal-to-noise ratio, 10) was 0.042-7.24 ng L(-1) . The linearity range of the method was 4-400 ng L(-1) . Average recovery of the benzene series at lower concentrations was 65-74% (20 ng L(-1) ). The relative standard deviation of benzene series contents determined within the linear range of detection was <10% of the mean level determined. Our proposed method is simple, rapid and sensitive, and can be competently applied to determine the breath gas composition of lung cancer patients.

Breath air analysis and its use as a biomarker in biological monitoring of occupational and environmental exposure to chemical agents

The analysis of exhaled air has several advantages since it is a noninvasive method applicable to a large number of toxic agents, in addition to being a simpler matrix than those of other biological samples such as urine and blood. However, it presents some challenges, such as the necessity of a more sensitive sampling procedure, since the chemical substances eliminated through exhaled air are unchanged in form, not being metabolized, and exhaled compounds are present at extremely low concentrations, i.e. in the nanomolar range. To improve the sensitivity and precision of measurement of the concentration of these substances in exhaled air, the sample usually has to be concentrated before assay by gas chromatography. To this end, the use of the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique has been proposed as an efficient sampling method. This paper presents a revision of breath analysis as a biomarker for occupational and environmental exposure to chemicals. The sampling methods and the potential use of SPME for determining chemical substances in exhaled air are discussed.

Biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer prevention

Identification of biomarkers is one of the most promising approaches for the detection of early malignant or even premalignant lesions with the chance of diagnosing early stages of non-small cell lung cancer that could be treated curatively. Alterations of chromosomes (3p, 5q, 9p), genes (Rb, C-myc, C-mos, hTERT), proteins (p16, p53, K-ras, hnRNP A2/B1, MCM2, EGFR, erbB-2, erbB-3, erbB-4) and others can be found in lung cancer. Some of these occur at early stages of the disease and few could serve as potential screening markers. The actual literature is reviewed and the relevance of the different biomarkers for early lung cancer detection is discussed.

Application of low-temperature glassy carbon-coated macrofibers for solid-phase microextraction analysis of simulated breath volatiles

With increasing interest in the detection of disease-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in human breath, breath analysis could prove to be a very useful diagnostic tool, especially for the early detection of lung cancer. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a technique well suited for breath analysis and has been applied to studying VOCs in the nanomolar concentration range. However, many compounds of interest in human breath are excreted at picomolar concentrations and may be unsuitable for analysis using conventional SPME sorbent phases. To extend the concentration range of conventional SPME, a novel 4-cm-long, low-temperature glassy carbon (LTGC) macrofiber was developed. The LTGC SPME macrofibers were used to extract five lung cancer-related VOCs (2-methylheptane, styrene, propylbenzene, decane, undecane) at conditions simulating human breath, and they were analyzed via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results show that detection limits are lower using the SPME macrofibers compared to a conventional SPME fiber, in the low- to sub-picomolar range for the compounds of interest, which should be adequate for the analysis of these compounds in human breath. Also, the LTGC SPME macrofibers demonstrate significantly greater extraction efficiencies, sensitivity, and peak identification accuracy compared to that of commercial PDMS/DVB fibers without excessive chromatographic peak broadening. The use of SPME macrofibers broadens the potential range of application of SPME where the rapid extraction of very low levels of volatile compounds is required.