Cerumenogram: a new frontier in cancer diagnosis in humans

João Marcos Gonçalves Barbosa,Lurian Caetano David,Anselmo Elcana De Oliveira,Nelson Roberto Antoniosi Filho,Marina Ferraz Gontijo Soares,Melissa Ameloti Gomes Avelino,Engy Shokry,Naiara Zedes Pereira,Camilla Gabriela De Oliveira

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48121-4

João Marcos Gonçalves Barbosa, Lurian Caetano David + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48121-4

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Aug 13, 2019
Citations: 17	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Universidade Federal de Goiás

Abstract

Cancer is the deadliest human disease and the development of new diagnosis methods is important to increase the chances of a cure. In this work it was developed a new method, named here for the first time as cerumenogram, using cerumen (earwax) as a new biomatrix for diagnosis. Earwax samples collected from cancer patients (cancer group) and cancer-free patients (control group) were analyzed by Headspace/Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HS/GC-MS), following with multivariate analysis steps to process the raw data generated. In total, 158 volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) were identified in the cerumen samples. The 27 selected as potential VOMs biomarkers for cancer provided 100% discrimination between the cancer and control groups. This new test can thus be routinely employed for cancer diagnoses that is non-invasive, fast, cheap, and highly accurate.

Highlights

Cancer is a disease characterized by the uncontrollable rise of abnormal cells in the body that extend through organs and tissues and can spread all over an organism
Cancer samples were collected from individuals that have been in cancer treatment, and from patients that have not received any type of cancer treatment
All information collected about the subjects from all groups in this study is summarized in Supplementary Table 2 (Table S2)

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is a disease characterized by the uncontrollable rise of abnormal cells in the body that extend through organs and tissues and can spread all over an organism. The existing non-invasive methods such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are associated with high false-positive rates and harmful for patients, due to the risk of radiation exposure[5]. Alternative approaches to these traditional diagnostics tools have been developed involving screening biomarkers in biological samples (biomatrices) using analytical methods. Many researchers in the bioanalytical field have focused attention on the development of new non-invasive techniques for cancer diagnoses[12], which has led to the study of volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) present in human and animals biomatrices, as biomarkers for a wide range of diseases[13,14].

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