Determination and pattern recognition of trace elements in serum samples from patients with renal cell carcinoma by ICP-MS

Abstract

Objective To study the relationship between serum trace elements and renal cell carcinoma.Methods The serum concentrations of multi-elements in 34 patients with renal cell carcinoma and 28 healthy volunteers were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS).The results were analyzed by partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and Fisher discriminant.Results Compared with healthy voluteers,the levels of vanadium (5 034.56 ng/L:4 401.23 ng/L ),cobalt (211.34 ng/L:158.67 ng/L),nickel(l 850.55 ng/L:1 587.12 ng/L),manganese(1 873.35 ng/L:932.68 ng/L) and cadmium(95.63 ng/L:36.43 ng/L) were significantly higher in patients with renal cell carcinoma (P ＜ 0.05 ).While,the concentrations of calcium( 10.83 mg/L:11.78 mg/L) and zinc(67.11 μg/L:70.92 pg/L)were significantly lower ( P ＜ 0.05 ).Discriminant analysis showed that the serum elements levels in the patients with renal cell carcinoma were significantly different from the healthy volunteers.The scores plot showed distinct clustering between patients and controls,the points of patients were obviously offset from the controls.The classification accuracy of Fisher discriminant function was 97.61％.Conclusion Trace elements in serum are significantly different in patients with renal cell carcinoma and healthy volunteers.Discriminant analysis of serum samples based on trace element levels is possible.Thus,it is feasible for early diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma by determination of trace elements and discriminant analysis. Key words: Kidney neoplasms; Mass spectrometry; Trace elements; Discriminant analysis