Digging deeper into volatile organic compounds associated with cancer

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), produced and emitted through the metabolism of cancer cells or the body’s immune system, are considered novel cancer biomarkers for diagnostic purposes. Of late, a large number of work has been done to find a relationship between VOCs’ signature of body and cancer. Cancer-related VOCs can be used to detect several types of cancers at the earlier stages which in turn provide a significantly higher chance of survival. Here we aim to provide an updated picture of cancer-related VOCs based on recent findings in this field focusing on cancer odor database.

Advances and Perspectives in Prostate Cancer Biomarker Discovery in the Last 5 Years through Tissue and Urine Metabolomics

“…Over the years, several independent subareas emerged from metabolomics, like volatilomics, lipidomics, among others. Volatilomics is based on the analysis of VOCs, like aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, hydrocarbons, or aromatic compounds [ 39 ], that are produced by human body and released into breath, blood, sweat, urine, feces, or saliva [ 39 , 40 ]. All VOCs share some physicochemical characteristics, such as low molecular weight and low boiling point and/or elevate vapor pressure in normal conditions [ 41 ].…”

“…VOCs are end products of human biological activity and their composition in biological samples can reflect pathological processes [ 40 ], alterations in normal biochemical pathways and/or a response to a damage or disease. Indeed, cancer development and progression can lead to the production of new VOCs and/or to change their concentration [ 41 ], making them suitable candidates to cancer biomarkers [ 39 ]. One of the greatest advantages of VOCs as biomarkers is the possibility to easily, inexpensively and quickly detect them in clinical point of care through the most recent technological developments in biological sensors (e.g., electronic noses (e-nose)) [ 39 ].…”

“…This is particularly true in volatilomics studies. Additionally, the interpretation of the urinary volatilome signature of PCa is particularly challenging once there is no clear understanding of the biological origin of VOCs [ 39 ]. In addition, the volatilome of PCa tissue has not been explored so far, to our knowledge, hindering the elucidation of a potential translatability of VOCs from tissues to urine samples.…”

Tracking the Progression of Triple Negative Mammary Tumors over Time by Chemometric Analysis of Urinary Volatile Organic Compounds

“…Cancer dysregulates metabolic pathways to enable tumor growth [ 13 ]. The biological rationale for exploiting VOCs is they are by- or end products of these dysregulated pathways [ 14 ]. Furthermore, VOCs can be noninvasively sampled and detected in human biofluids including sweat, saliva, blood, breath and urine.…”

Optimisation of Urine Sample Preparation for Headspace-Solid Phase Microextraction Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry: Altering Sample pH, Sulphuric Acid Concentration and Phase Ratio

“…Urinary VOCs have unsurprisingly been proposed to be useful to detect metabolic changes in conditions involved in urological systems, for example, urinary tract infection [13], minimal change type nephrotic syndrome [14], and urological cancer detection (kidney, renal cell carcinoma, and bladder) [1,[15][16][17]. Moreover, urinary VOCs have also been proposed for the detection of a wide range of other cancers outside the urological systems [18,19], including colorectal cancer [20], head and neck cancer [21], and lung cancer [22]).…”