Potential of Volatile Organic Compounds as a Noninvasive Method for Early Detection of EGFR Mutation

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are known to be associated with lung cancer, and EGFR mutations are common in lung adenocarcinoma. Results of a study that aimed to investigate the potential of analyzing VOCs as a noninvasive method for early detection of EGFR mutation were presented at the ESMO Congress 2023.

The researchers collected and analyzed breath samples from 114 patients with EGFR wild-type lung adenocarcinoma and 132 patients with EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma. The top 10 VOC ions that were significantly different between the patients with EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma and those without EGFR mutation are displayed in the table (P<.05). Results showed that the discrimination power of each VOC was relatively limited. Among them, 2-Ethyl-4,5-dimethylthiazole had the highest accuracy, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.829 (95% CI, 0.744-0.974).

The researchers found the model performed well with the combination of these 10 VOC ions. The AUC for the combination model was 0.895 (95% CI, 0.810-0.980) in the validation cohort, whereas the AUC in the test set was 0.849 (95% CI, 0.769-0.930), indicating good diagnostic accuracy with a sensitivity of 70.7% (95% CI, 56.6-84.4) and a specificity of 71.4% (95% CI, 56.2-86.6).

Their study suggested that “VOCs analysis might be useful as [a] noninvasive method for early detection of EGFR mutations in lung adenocarcinoma,” the researchers concluded. “Further studies are needed to validate the accuracy of our model.”

Source: Yang Y. A detection model for EGFR mutations in lung adenocarcinoma patients based on volatile organic compounds. Abstract of a poster presented at the ESMO Congress 2023; October 20-24, 2023; Madrid, Spain.