Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Aug 17;14(16):3982.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14163982.

Volatilomics: An Emerging and Promising Avenue for the Detection of Potential Prostate Cancer Biomarkers

Cristina V Berenguer  1 , Ferdinando Pereira  2 , Jorge A M Pereira  1 , José S Câmara  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Volatilomics: An Emerging and Promising Avenue for the Detection of Potential Prostate Cancer Biomarkers

Cristina V Berenguer et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Despite the spectacular advances in molecular medicine, including genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, lipidomics, and personalized medicine, supported by the discovery of the human genome, prostate cancer (PCa) remains the most frequent malignant tumor and a leading cause of oncological death in men. New methods for prognostic, diagnostic, and therapy evaluation are mainly based on the combination of imaging techniques with other methodologies, such as gene or protein profiling, aimed at improving PCa management and surveillance. However, the lack of highly specific and sensitive biomarkers for its early detection is a major hurdle to this goal. Apart from classical biomarkers, the study of endogenous volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) biosynthesized by different metabolic pathways and found in several biofluids is emerging as an innovative, efficient, accessible, and non-invasive approach to establish the volatilomic biosignature of PCa patients, unravelling potential biomarkers. This review provides a brief overview of the challenges of PCa screening methods and emergent biomarkers. We also focus on the potential of volatilomics for the establishment of PCa biomarkers from non-invasive matrices.

Keywords: diagnosis; prostate cancer; tumor biomarkers; volatilomics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prostate-cancer screening methods.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Emergent prostate cancer biomarkers for urine, serum, and tissue samples have been developed and can be used for diagnostic, prognostic, or risk stratification purposes. Legend: EPI, ExoDx Prostate IntelliScore; MPS, MyProstateScore; PCA3, prostate cancer gene 3; PHI, Prostate Health Index; 4KScore, Four-Kallikrein test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
General flowchart of volatilomics approaches.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Cancer-related metabolic and biochemical activities can be detected through volatile organic metabolites. The establishment of a volatilomic biosignature can lead to the discovery of biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sung H., Ferlay J., Siegel R.L., Laversanne M., Soerjomataram I., Jemal A., Bray F. Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries. CA. Cancer J. Clin. 2021;71:209–249. doi: 10.3322/caac.21660. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rawla P. Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer. World J. Oncol. 2019;10:63–89. doi: 10.14740/wjon1191. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beltran H., Demichelis F. Intrapatient heterogeneity in prostate cancer. Nat. Rev. Urol. 2015;12:430–431. doi: 10.1038/nrurol.2015.182. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dudka I., Thysell E., Lundquist K., Antti H., Iglesias-Gato D., Flores-Morales A., Bergh A., Wikström P., Gröbner G. Comprehensive metabolomics analysis of prostate cancer tissue in relation to tumor aggressiveness and TMPRSS2-ERG fusion status. BMC Cancer. 2020;20:437. doi: 10.1186/s12885-020-06908-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ostrander E.A., Johannesson B. Prostate cancer susceptibility loci: Finding the genes. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 2008;617:179–190. doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-69080-3_17. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources