Final Report Summary - DIAG-CANCER (Diagnosis, Screening and Monitoring of Cancer Diseases via Exhaled Breath Using an Array of Nanosensors)
Many cancer diseases are being missed or late diagnosed and thus patients suffer from low efficiency of appropriate treatments and mortality rate is tremendously high. Thus there is an increasing need for non (minimally)-invasive, highly accurate, time effective and low-cost test that would allow efficient and rapid early detection of various cancer diseases while screening the population based on their bio-specification toward personalized medicine. The proposed methodology aiming to address these problems integrates multidisciplinary efforts on several length scales harnessing nanotechnology, biomedical engineering and oncology.
In the frame of this grant we have proven the ability to utilize nanomaterial-based devices for the purpose of screening, monitoring and genetic and histological mapping of lung, breast, head and neck, hepatocarcinoma and ovarian cancers with very high sensitivities and specificities (mostly above 80%). The nanomaterial based device is composed of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with modified organic ligands and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) capped with an organic cap-layer that were synthetized to specifically match each cancer disease and application (e.g. screening, monitoring etc.). A complementary approach aiming to identify and quantify specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was held by GC-MS. The two approaches were then exploited for comprehensive analysis of breath and headspace volatolomic signatures through VOCs. The basic assumption that motivated us in this research is that metabolic changes occurring within cancer cells inside the body are reflected as volatile signatures emitted in their microenvironment to the blood stream and from there to the breath.
The presented results of this research have the potential to reduce cancer mortality within the near future through vast and improved screening of high risk patients and improved compliance. This approach has proven to have the potential to detect early stages of various types of cancers (especially lung, gastric and head-and-neck cancers) with high accuracies of >90%. This method has also been proven to have a superior potential in genetic and histological mapping of lung, breast, head and neck, ovarian and hepatocarcinoma cancers and for accurate detection of benign states. The proposed method may also be applied for monitoring patient's progression or regression and success of treatment by daily follow-up in a safe, non-invasive and low-cost manner. These features will improve drug selection and resistance detection, thereby increasing the clinical benefit for the patients, and at the same time, hospitalizations caused by unnecessary invasive procedures could be significantly reduced.
In the frame of this grant we have proven the ability to utilize nanomaterial-based devices for the purpose of screening, monitoring and genetic and histological mapping of lung, breast, head and neck, hepatocarcinoma and ovarian cancers with very high sensitivities and specificities (mostly above 80%). The nanomaterial based device is composed of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with modified organic ligands and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) capped with an organic cap-layer that were synthetized to specifically match each cancer disease and application (e.g. screening, monitoring etc.). A complementary approach aiming to identify and quantify specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was held by GC-MS. The two approaches were then exploited for comprehensive analysis of breath and headspace volatolomic signatures through VOCs. The basic assumption that motivated us in this research is that metabolic changes occurring within cancer cells inside the body are reflected as volatile signatures emitted in their microenvironment to the blood stream and from there to the breath.
The presented results of this research have the potential to reduce cancer mortality within the near future through vast and improved screening of high risk patients and improved compliance. This approach has proven to have the potential to detect early stages of various types of cancers (especially lung, gastric and head-and-neck cancers) with high accuracies of >90%. This method has also been proven to have a superior potential in genetic and histological mapping of lung, breast, head and neck, ovarian and hepatocarcinoma cancers and for accurate detection of benign states. The proposed method may also be applied for monitoring patient's progression or regression and success of treatment by daily follow-up in a safe, non-invasive and low-cost manner. These features will improve drug selection and resistance detection, thereby increasing the clinical benefit for the patients, and at the same time, hospitalizations caused by unnecessary invasive procedures could be significantly reduced.