Volatile organic compounds, new biomarkers in exhaled breath samples of lung cancer patients with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

SESSION TITLE: Lung Cancer Posters ISESSION TYPE: Poster PresentationsPRESENTED ON: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 01:15 PM - 02:15 PMPURPOSE: Tobacco smoke exposure is the main risk factor for the development of lung cancer (LC) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In turn, COPD is a risk factor for the development of LC. Tobacco smoke contains a large number of free radicals, reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species that increase oxidative stress. Damage to membrane lipids (lipid peroxidation) produces different volatile organic compounds (VOC) (aldehydes, carboxylic acids, etc.) that can be detected in exhaled breath.

AIMS: To determine whether there are differences between exhaled VOC in lung cancer patients with and without COPD.

METHODS: We collected exhaled air samples from 81 patients with LC (57 with COPD and 24 without COPD) via the breath sampler Bio-VOCTM FVC. The samples were analyzed by Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD GC-MS; Markes-Agilent Tech). SPSS® v-15 for Windows was used for statistical analysis. Informed consent was previously obtained in all cases.

RESULTS: The study included 81 mostly male (64/81) lung cancer patients, seventy per cent of which (n=57/81) also had COPD. The mean age was 66.5 (+/- 12.7 years) in the lung cancer group without COPD, and 69.3 (+/- 10.3) in the lung cancer group with COPD. Lung cancer patients with COPD were heavier smokers or ex-smokers in comparison to lung cancer patients without COPD. Among lung cancer patients with COPD squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma (33.3% each) were the most frequent histological types. We quantified amounts of hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, propanoic and nonanoic acid in exhaled breath samples. We observed statistically significant lower levels of propanoic acid in lung cancer patients without COPD in comparison to those with COPD (95% CI (1.7-13.1)). There were no differences in the content of exhaled propanoic acid between gender or lung cancer histology groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Propanoic acid in exhaled breath samples could be used to discriminate between lung cancer patients without and with COPD. Further studies are required to confirm this hypothesis. Supported by FIS (Formación en Investigación en Salud): PI07/1116; Neumomadrid 2008 and 2012, SEPAR (Sociedad Española de Neumonología y Cirugía Torácica) 2009/881 and 2012/135CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: New biomrkers involved in lung cancer screening and other respiratory diseases (COPD)DISCLOSURE: The following authors have nothing to disclose: Carolin Wagner, Maria Angeles Munoz, Javier Jareño, Carlos Gutierrez Ortega, Antonio Aguilar Ros, Belen Carrillo Aranda, Jose Angel Maldonado Sanz, Concepcion Civera, Luis CallolVOCs are used in the evaluation of respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, COPD.