(beraking latest news) – An electronic nose for the early diagnosis of urinary tumors. It is called e-Nose and is able to ‘sniff’ in the urine of patients specific olfactory molecular fingerprints of prostate and kidney cancer, as demonstrated by a study conducted at the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (Ire) in Rome. The work – published in the magazines ‘Cancers’ and ‘Biosensor Basel’ – earned Manuela Costantini, a young researcher of Urology at Ire, the special mention in precision medicine during the 13th edition of the ‘Taobuk Festival SeeSicily’ in Taormina .
The research was based on the analysis with e-Nose of the volatile organic compounds of urine, called volatilityloma, of patients affected by renal cell carcinoma and prostatic carcinoma. “For the study – explains Costantini – we enrolled about 500 of our patients suffering from prostate and kidney cancer, who underwent surgery from December 2019 to December 2022. The control group consisted of 200 healthy subjects. The results proved to be promising: for kidney cancer the level of sensitivity of the test, i.e. the ability to identify true positives, was 71.8%, while the level of specificity, i.e. the ability to identify true negatives, it was 89.4%; for prostate cancer the sensitivity of the test reached 82.7% and the specificity 88.5%”.
The e-nose used – describes a note from the Ire – has a small chip of 32 electrochemical sensors made of organic polymers. As the sensors are exposed to the urine sample, the internal polymers swell, causing a change in their electrical resistance. The set of variations of each of the sensors produces a distribution of signals (urine-stamp) which can be identified through recognition algorithms, such as a specific olfactory fingerprint. According to the authors, the method represents “a promising test for the early diagnosis of urological malignancies: rapid, non-invasive, repeatable, inexpensive and endowed with high specificity and sensitivity”. For Giuseppe Simone, director of Urology at Ire, “the e-Nose has enormous potential. From the point of view of the liquid biopsy it could be used not only as a screening tool for early diagnosis, but also in the prognostic field to evaluate the effectiveness of surgical or pharmacological treatment, or to predict any recurrences during follow-up”.
Urological tumors are frequent and aggressive, the note points out. Kidney cancer is the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the population worldwide. Prostate cancer is among the most common tumors in the world, representing the third most diagnosed tumor in the male population: estimates speak of more than 40,000 new cases a year in Italy, and about one in 8 men is likely to get sick in the course of life. Fortunately, early diagnosis and timely medical intervention are able to reduce the mortality of these neoplasms.
At the SeeSicily Taobuk Festival big names in science and Nobel Prizes for Medicine discussed the latest frontiers such as biotechnology and innovative treatment tools based on genetic material and stem cells.
“The assignment of this recognition which rewards our constant commitment to innovation is a source of great pride for us – declares Gennaro Ciliberto, IRE scientific director – Now we will have to work even more intensely, expanding the case history and collaborating with other centers for validate the new technology and ensure that this type of investigation can enter clinical practice as soon as possible”.