Abstract
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) may help detect cancer tumour. This study addressed this question, as well as two methodological issues: 1) repeatability, comparing VOCs profiles obtained with two Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) fibers used simultaneously; 2) detectability of cancer VOCs biomarkers, comparing profiles obtained following 1h versus 24h exposure of SPME fibers. We analyzed VOCs composition of soiled bedding obtained from a lung adenocarcinoma mouse model in which cancer was induced by doxycycline ingestion. We compared the VOCs profile of soiled bedding of cancerous (CC) and non-cancerous (NC) mice, before (T0), after two-weeks (T2) and after twelve weeks (T12) doxycycline ingestion. The results indicate: 1) qualitative and quantitative consistency in VOCs detection by two distinct SPME fibers ; 2) although more VOCs were detected following a 24h compared to 1h SPME exposure, none of the former molecules were related to cancer; 3) doxycycline impacted VOCs emissions in both CC and NC mice; 4) cancer impacted four VOCs at T12 only: the benzaldehyde which showed higher levels in CC mice and the hexan-1-ol and two mice pheromones, the 2 sec -butyl-4,5-dihydrothiazole and the 3,4-dehydro- exo -brevicomine, which showed lower levels in CC mice. Our study points out that the use of two SPME fibers and an extraction duration of 1h may be considered a good compromise allowing detection of cancer biomarkers while easing bench constraints.