Detection of Pancreatic Cancer by Urine Volatile Organic Compound Analysis

Abstract

Background/aim: Most pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, since the diagnosis is demanding. Field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is a sensitive technique used for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC). We evaluated the ability of FAIMS to discriminate between pancreatic cancer and healthy controls from a urine sample.

Patients and methods: For a proof-of-concept study in three Finnish hospitals, 68 patients with pancreatic cancer, 36 with acute pancreatitis, 18 with chronic pancreatitis, 8 with pancreatic pre-malign lesions and 52 healthy controls were prospectively recruited. Urine samples were collected at the time of diagnosis and stored at -70°C. The samples were subsequently measured with FAIMS. The data were processed with linear discriminant analysis and cross-validated with leave-one-out cross-validation.

Results: FAIMS distinguished pancreatic cancer from controls with a sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 79%.

Conclusion: As a non-invasive and rapid urine test, FAIMS can discriminate patients with pancreatic cancer from healthy controls.

Keywords: FAIMS; Pancreatic cancer; linear discriminant analysis; pre-malignant lesion; urine test; volatile organic compound.