A sensor array and GC study about VOCs and cancer cells

Abstract In recent years a body of evidences about the relationship between volatile compounds released in body compartments and diseases have been provided. These researches did not indicate if anomalous volatile patterns are a consequence of a general alteration of body metabolism or if they originate from cancer cells. In order to approach a solution to this question, in this paper, an experiment aimed at discriminating cultured tumoral cells lines from their volatile compounds is illustrated. Volatile organic compounds have been fingerprinted with a gas sensor array and a gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometer. These results suggest that cell lines from human tumors are characterized by a distinct volatile compounds profile and that these patterns when fingerprinted by a chemical sensor array tend to cluster according to the kind of tumor. These findings provide a hint about the possibility to identify a specific volatile fingerprint for each tumor type.