Cancer Science & Therapy

New Construction of an Electronic Nose Detects Volatile Organic Compounds from Blood, useful for the Diagnosis and Screening of Ovarian Carcinoma

Abstract

Gyorgy Horvath, Jonas Ranstam, Mattias Ottosson and Morgan Nilsen

Objective: Ovarian cancer is the fifth-most common cause of cancer-related death in women. As a result of these high mortality rates, ovarian cancer fulfils some of the criteria necessary for early detection and for introduction of population screening: It is an important health problem, and early detection is associated with improved outcomes. However, there are no safe methods for early diagnosis nor any accepted screening programmed for ovarian cancer. Experimental data indicated that the detection of volatile organic compounds released by various cancer cells may be useful in diagnosing cancer.
Methods: We constructed an electronic nose that is adapted in a number of ways to analyses volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from blood.
Results: A statistical analysis of the detected signals from 165 patients showed an AUC 95% with CI of 0.9559- 0.9929. The sensitivity was 92% and the specificity was 93%.
Conclusion: This device is the first clinically useful tool for the early diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma. The operation of the instrument is based on the accurate detection of specific VOC: s from blood that are characteristic of ovarian carcinoma.