Background: Lung cancer is the primary cause of cancer-induced death. In addition to prevention and improved treatment, it has increasingly been established that early detection is critical to successful remission.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine that could help diagnose mouse lung cancer at an early stage of its development.
Methods: We analysed the VOC composition of urine in a genetically engineered lung adenocarcinoma mouse model with oncogenic EGFR doxycycline-inducible lung-specific expression. We compared the urinary VOCs of 10 cancerous mice and 10 healthy mice (controls) before and after doxycycline induction, every two weeks for 12 weeks, until full-blown carcinomas appeared. We used SPME fibres and gas chromatography - mass spectrometry to detect variations in cancer-related urinary VOCs over time.
Results: This study allowed us to identify eight diagnostic biomarkers that help discriminate early stages of cancer tumour development (i.e., before MRI imaging techniques could identify it).
Conclusion: The analysis of mice urinary VOCs have shown that cancer can induce changes in odour profiles at an early stage of cancer development, opening a promising avenue for early diagnosis of lung cancer in other models.
Keywords: EGFR oncogenic mutation; Lung cancer; Mus musculus; biomarkers; early detection; urine; volatile organic compounds.