Rapid Breath Analysis for Lung Cancer Detection using an Automated Micro Portable Gas Chromatography Device

Objective: Breath analysis examining specific patterns of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been demonstrated to be able to discriminate lung cancer (LC) patients from healthy controls (HC). However, the existing technology uses complex, expensive, and low throughput analytical platforms to give an offline response, thus preventing its applicability for mass screening. The reliability of a new portable device to enable rapid, on-site LC diagnosis is tested.
Methods: The breath of patients with histologically proven LC and HC (negative chest X-rays) was sampled into Tedlar bags through a Nafion filter and a one-way mouthpiece. The breath samples in the bags were then analyzed by an automated micro portable gas chromatography (GC) device developed in-house, which consisted of a thermal desorption tube, thermal injector, separation column, and photoionization detector, as well as other accessories such as pumps, valves, and a helium cartridge. The chromatograms were analyzed by chemometrics, machine learning, principal component analysis and linear discriminating analysis.
Results: 25 LC patients and 25 HC well matched for age, sex, smoking habit and comorbidities, entered the study. After a training set (20 LC and 20 HC), and a testing set (5 LC and 5 HC), an overall specificity of 96.0%, a sensitivity of 88.0% and an accuracy of 95.7% to identify LC patients were found based on four VOCs (Figure 1).
Conclusions: These preliminary results represent a step forward to develop a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-access, and easy-to-use tool for rapid and on-site mass screening of LC.

DEBORA BRASCIA (1), Giulia De Iaco (1), Teodora Panza (1), Francesca Signore (1), Francesco De Blasi (1), Mariangela Valentini (1), Doroty Sampietro (1), Wenzhe Zang (2), Ruchi Sharma (2), Xudong Fan (2), Giuseppe Marulli (1), (1) Thoracic Surgery Unit, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, Bari University Hospital, Bari, Italy, (2) Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Michigan, United, Ann Arbor, MI

Sudish Murthy

Invited Discussant

Dr. Sudish Murthy holds the Daniel and Karen Lee Endowed Chair in Thoracic Surgery, is the Section Head of General Thoracic Surgery, Surgical Director of the Center of Major Airway Disease, and Associate Program Director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency Program. He is a Thoracic Surgeon in the Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery at The Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic and a Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Murthy is over 10,000 operations throughout his lengthy and distinguished career.

Education and Training: Dr. Murthy earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a PhD in pathology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. At Columbia, he received the Janeway Prize for top achievement in his graduating class, the Robert F. Loeb Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine, the Merck Award for outstanding scholarship, and several other awards.

Dr. Murthy completed an internship and a residency in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University, Boston. He continued there for a residency in cardiothoracic surgery. As a Harvard University Clinical Fellow, he was selected as the Whitman Traveling Scholar and served as the surgical emissary for Harvard Medical School in the Department of Esophageal Surgery at Queen Mary Hospital Medical Center at the University of Hong Kong.

Publications and Speaking: Dr. Murthy is a dedicated researcher and prolific writer. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific articles in leading peer-reviewed medical journals and more than a dozen chapters in medical textbooks. His research interests include lung cancer, lung transplant and emphysema

DEBORA BRASCIA

Abstract Presenter

BACKGROUND
Bari University Medical School (2010-2016)
Oulu University Hospital Visiting Scholar, Dept. Cardiothoracic Surgery, Finland (07.2016-9.2016)
Bari University Thoracic Surgery Residency (2017-ongoing)
University Medicine Essen, Ruhrlandklinik, Clinical Fellow, Essen, Germany (02.2019-03.2019)
Principles and Practice of Clinical Research(PPCR) course, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts, Boston (03.2021-10.2021)

HONOURS
“ANDREA SCHIAVINI” award – SICT, October 2021

MEMBERSHIPS
- ESTS Europeans Society of Thoracic Surgeons (Member)
- EACTS European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (Member)
- SICT Società Italiana di Chirurgia Toracica (Member)
- SPIGC Società Polispecialistica Italiana dei Giovani Chirurghi (Past Regional President 2019-2021)

PUBLICATIONS
Total number of publications in peer-review journals: 22
Total number of Citations: 224
H-index: 8
 

Specialties: Thoracic, Anatomy and Conditions, Lung--Cancer, Treatment/Procedure/Operation/Surgery, Lung--Cancer