Opsporen van prostaatkanker in uitademingslucht met behulp van een draagbare elektronische neus

In the last decade, several non-invasive methods have been researched in order to improve detection of prostate cancer (PCa). This study investigated the possibility of detecting PCa based on exhaled-breath analysis using an advanced, easy-to-use, portable electronic nose (‘AeonoseTM’). Exhaled-breath was probed from 85 patients. Within this population, 32 were diagnosed with primary PCa, and 53 patients were used as controls: 30 having negative biopsies, 23 with benign prostate hyperplasia. In order to differentiate between groups, an artificial neural network was trained. This trained model showed an area under the curve of 0.79 with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.84 (95% CI = 0.66–0.94) and 0.70 (95% CI = 0.55–0.81) respectively, when comparing primary PCa and controls. Negative predictive value found was 0.88. In conclusion, these promising results imply Aeonose™ exhaled-breath analysis can be used to detect PCa.