Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Exhale Breath Condensate of Lung Cancer Patients,

MAZZEI, JUAN; CABALLERO, FABIANA; BARRO, ANALIA; GUOLO,MARCELO; ESTEBA, H; BATLLE, ALCIRA

Toronto, Canada

Conferencia; American Thoracic Society 2008. International Conference; 2008

American Thoracic Society (ATS)

Lung cancer (LC) appears together with an increase in oxidative stress (OS) and CytP450 enzyme induction. Both processes have an effect on the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath. With the aim of establishing and comparing the typical patterns of the components of the exhaled breath condensate (EBC), in smokers and patients suffering from COPD or LC, we selected patients from the Division of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery of the Hospital de Clnicas, we collected EBC, and performed a Spirometry and volume flow curve with and without bronchodilators. The EBC is analysed in a gaseous chromotograph with Headspace automatic sampling and mass detector. In the smokers we observed in the EBC an increase (measured in number of times (t) compared to healthy individuals (hi),) in butane (2.7t; Vis=1.8 0.7ppm) and decane (1.7t; Vis=152 12ppb) ). In COPD and LC patients these VOCs were absent or low, but they presented high levels of 3-methylpentane (1.5t and 1.8t, respectively; Vis=67 4ppb). In LC patients there was also an increase of hexane (4t; Vis=141 13ppb) and 2,4-dimethylheptane (2.8t; Vis=8.2 0.8ppb) and in COPD 2-methylpentane (8.6t; Vis=107 17ppm). The analysis of benzene and derivatives (BTEX) revealed in LC patients, in contrast with the other groups, the presence of benzene (VCaP=2.1 0.9ppb) and increased levels of ethylbenzene (3.4t; Vis=2.9 0.8ppb) and of xilene (4t; Vis=7.5 0.6ppb). These results show a high level of OS in smokers, COPD and LC, with differential patterns and suggest that the analysis of BTEX could be an important tool for lung cancer diagnosis.