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Noninvasive detection of colorectal cancer by analysis of exhaled breath

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Abstract

There has been growing interest in exhaled breath analysis for cancer screening and disease monitoring; however, limited breath biomarker information exists regarding colorectal cancer (CRC). The objective of this study was to screen for breath biomarkers of CRC. Exhaled breath was collected from 20 CRC patients and 20 healthy controls; subsequently, solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS) was used to assess the exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of the study participants. The statistical methods of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were performed to process the final data. The VOCs in the exhalations of CRC patients exhibited significant differences from the VOCs in the exhalations of healthy controls; in particular, relative to the latter exhalations, the former exhalations contain significantly higher levels of cyclohexanone, 2,2-dimethyldecane, dodecane, 4-ethyl-1-octyn-3-ol, ethylaniline, cyclooctylmethanol, trans-2-dodecen-1-ol, and 3-hydroxy-2,4,4-trimethylpentyl 2-methylpropanoate but significantly lower levels of 6-t-butyl-2,2,9,9-tetramethyl-3,5-decadien-7-yne (P < 0.05). Analyses of breath VOCs provide a related model of CRC exhalation that could represent an effective and convenient screening method for this disease.

Partial least-squares discriminant analysis scores plot (with the three components of R2X=0.583, R2Y=0.806, and Q2=0.565), which reveals that a considerable separation was achieved between colorectal cancer breath samples and normal controls

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Acknowledgments

Financial support by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30972839), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2013M531069), Foundation of Heilongjiang Educational Committee (No. 12531245), and Doctoral Fund of the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University (No. 2012B006) are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, No. 23 Youzheng St, Nangang District, 150001, Harbin, China

    Changsong Wang, Xiaoyang Wang, Chunjie Chi, Lei Guo, Suqi Luo, Zhigang Guo & Enyou Li

  2. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, 157 Baojian Rd, Nangang, 150081, Harbin, China

    Chaofu Ke

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, 116023, Dalian, China

    Guowang Xu

  4. The Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Immunity and Infection, Pathogenic Biology, Department of Microbiology, Harbin Medical University, 150081, Harbin, China

    Changsong Wang & Fengmin Zhang

  5. Key Laboratory of Bio-Pharmaceutical, Ministry of Education, Harbin Medical University, 150081, Harbin, China

    Changsong Wang & Fengmin Zhang

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  1. Changsong Wang
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  2. Chaofu Ke
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  3. Xiaoyang Wang
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  7. Zhigang Guo
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  9. Fengmin Zhang
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  10. Enyou Li
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Correspondence to Enyou Li.

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Changsong Wang and Chaofu Ke contributed equally to this work.

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Wang, C., Ke, C., Wang, X. et al. Noninvasive detection of colorectal cancer by analysis of exhaled breath. Anal Bioanal Chem 406, 4757–4763 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-7865-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-7865-x

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