Liquid biopsy for pancreatic cancer detection using infrared spectroscopy

Sala, A. et al. (2022) Liquid biopsy for pancreatic cancer detection using infrared spectroscopy. Cancers, 14(13), 3048. (doi: 10.3390/cancers14133048) (PMID:35804820) (PMCID:PMC9264892)

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer claims over 460,000 victims per year. The carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 test is the blood test used for pancreatic cancer’s detection; however, its levels can be raised in symptomatic patients with other non-malignant diseases, or with other tumors in the surrounding area. Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy has demonstrated exceptional potential in cancer diagnostics, and its clinical implementation could represent a significant step towards early detection. This proof-of-concept study, investigating the use of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy on dried blood serum, focused on the discrimination of both cancer versus healthy control samples, and cancer versus symptomatic non-malignant control samples, as a novel liquid biopsy approach for pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Machine learning algorithms were applied, achieving results of up to 92% sensitivity and 88% specificity when discriminating between cancers (n = 100) and healthy controls (n = 100). An area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95 was obtained through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Balanced sensitivity and specificity over 75%, with an AUC of 0.83, were achieved with cancers (n = 35) versus symptomatic controls (n = 35). Herein, we present these results as demonstration that our liquid biopsy approach could become a simple, minimally invasive, and reliable diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer detection.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The PANSPEC project was funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Action 2017 Early Diagnosis Challenge Award (awarded to M.J.B.). Sample collection at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre was supported by the resources of the Glasgow ECMC (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre)—funded by CR-UK (Grant Code C53430/A28345), the Chief Scientist’s Office, Scotland, and the CR-UK Glasgow Clinical Trials Unit.
• Keywords: PDAC, adenocarcinoma, serum, ATR-FTIR, pancreatic cancer, infrared spectroscopy.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Evans, Professor Jeff

Creator Roles

Evans, T. R. J.: Conceptualization, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Sala, A., Cameron, J. M., Jenkins, C. A., Barr, H., Christie, L., Conn, J. J.A., Evans, T. R. J., Harris, D. A., Palmer, D. S., Rinaldi, C., Theakstone, A. G., and Baker, M. J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cancer Sciences
• Journal Name: Cancers
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2072-6694
• ISSN (Online): 2072-6694
• Published Online: 21 June 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Cancers 14(13): 3048
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License