Spectrochemical analysis of liquid biopsy harnessed to multivariate analysis towards breast cancer screening

Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 30;10(1):12818. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69800-7.

Abstract

Mortality due to breast cancer could be reduced via screening programs where preliminary clinical tests employed in an asymptomatic well-population with the objective of identifying cancer biomarkers could allow earlier referral of women with altered results for deeper clinical analysis and treatment. The introduction of well-population screening using new and less-invasive technologies as a strategy for earlier detection of breast cancer is thus highly desirable. Herein, spectrochemical analyses harnessed to multivariate classification techniques are used as a bio-analytical tool for a Breast Cancer Screening Program using liquid biopsy in the form of blood plasma samples collected from 476 patients recruited over a 2-year period. This methodology is based on acquiring and analysing the spectrochemical fingerprint of plasma samples by attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy; derived spectra reflect intrinsic biochemical composition, generating information on nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. Excellent results in terms of sensitivity (94%) and specificity (91%) were obtained using this method in comparison with traditional mammography (88-93% and 85-94%, respectively). Additional advantages such as better disease prognosis thus allowing a more effective treatment, lower associated morbidity, fewer false-positive and false-negative results, lower-cost, and higher analytical frequency make this method attractive for translation to the clinical setting.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers, Tumor / analysis*
  • Breast Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Carbohydrates / analysis
  • Early Detection of Cancer / methods*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Lipids / analysis
  • Liquid Biopsy / methods*
  • Mass Screening / methods
  • Multivariate Analysis*
  • Nucleic Acids
  • Proteins / analysis
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / methods*

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Carbohydrates
  • Lipids
  • Nucleic Acids
  • Proteins