Abstract
Early diagnosis of colorectal cancer is crucial to increase the survival rates of the patients and breath analysis represents a promising non-invasive tool to obtain information on cancer-related variations on the human volatilome. A solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method for the determination of seven selected compounds, representative of the volatilome secreted by the colonic mucosa of patients affected by colorectal cancer, including benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, dodecane, ethylbenzene, octanal, tetradecane and toluene, was developed. All the extraction parameters were studied for both headspace and direct immersion sampling and the procedures fully validated. The potential of the approach was demonstrated by the time monitoring of the emission of the selected volatile organic compounds from the surgical resected colon mucosa tissues of colorectal cancer patients. Furthermore, the extraction and identification of thirty-one volatile organic compounds secreted by the same tissues was accomplished.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death [1,2,3,4] and the third most prevalent malignancy worldwide [5]
If reflected in the pattern of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of the patients, those differences could lead to a simple, non-invasive, unexpensive method for early diagnosis of the disease based on the direct breath analysis [16]
Starting from the optimization of the HS-Solid phase microextraction (SPME) conditions, preliminary experiments were performed in order to compare the extraction efficiency of different fiber coatings, namely, polyethylene glycol (PEG), polyacrylate (PA), carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (CAR/PDMS), carboxen (CAR), carboxen/divinylbenzene/polydimethylsiloxane (CAR/ DVB/PDMS) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), using the experimental conditions reported in Section 2.2
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death [1,2,3,4] and the third most prevalent malignancy worldwide [5]. The volatilome [6] is represented by the volatile fraction of metabolome generated within the human organism and reflects the metabolic processes in the body, which may change in presence of cancer [7,8,9]. Wherever cancer is in the body, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by the tumor tissue into the bloodstream are subsequently eliminated through the lung alveoli as components of exhaled air [10,11], making breath analysis an attractive, promising and non-invasive means for the diagnosis and follow-up of the disease [12]. If reflected in the pattern of exhaled VOCs of the patients, those differences could lead to a simple, non-invasive, unexpensive method for early diagnosis of the disease based on the direct breath analysis [16]
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