Investigation of urinary volatomic alterations in head and neck cancer: a non-invasive approach towards diagnosis and prognosis

• Autor(a) principal: Taware, Ravindra
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Taunk, Khushman, Pereira, Jorge A. M., Dhakne, Rahul, Kannan, Narayanan, Soneji, Dharmesh, Câmara, José S., Nagarajaram, H. A., Rapole, Srikanth
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3878
• topic: Head and neck cancer; Volatomics; VOMs; GC–MS; Urinary markers; .; Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia; Centro de Química da Madeira

Introduction Head and neck cancer (HNC), like many other forms of cancer, is usually detected in advanced stages, causing poor survival outcomes. Lack of specific and sensi tive screening markers for early detection of HNC has wors ened the scenario for the patients as well as the clinicians. Therefore, identification of efficient, noninvasive and afford able screening marker/methodology with high specificity and sensitivity is imminent need of situation. Objectives This study aims to identify and characterize urinary volatomic alterations specific to HNC. Methods Volatomic analysis of urine samples collected from HNC patients (n=29) and healthy controls (n=31) was performed using headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC– MS). Both univariate and multivariate statistical approaches were used to investigate HNC specific volatomic alterations. Results Statistical analysis revealed a total of 28 metabo lites with highest contribution towards discrimination of HNC patients from healthy controls (VIP >1, p < 0.05, Log2 FC ≥0.58/≤−0.57). The discrimination efficiency and accuracy of urinary VOCs was ascertained by ROC curve analysis that allowed the identification of four metabolites viz. 2,6-dimethyl-7-octen-2-ol, 1-butanol, p-xylene and 4-methyl-2-heptanone with highest sensitivity and speci ficity to discriminate HNC patients from healthy controls. Further, the metabolic pathway analysis identified several dysregulated pathways in HNC patients and their detailed investigations could unravel novel mechanistic insights into the disease pathophysiology. Conclusion Overall, this study provides valuable finger print of the volatile profile of HNC patients, which in turn, might help in improving the current understanding of this form of cancer and lead to the development of non-invasive approaches for HNC diagnosis.