Exhaled volatile organic compounds as lung cancer biomarkers during one-lung ventilation

In this study, single-lung ventilation was used to detect differences in the volatile organic compound (VOCs) profiles between lung tissues in healthy and affected lungs. In addition, changes that occurred after lung cancer resection in both the VOCs profiles of exhaled breath from ipsilateral and contralateral lungs and the VOCs profiles of exhaled breath and blood sample headspaces were also determined. Eighteen patients with non-small cell carcinoma were enrolled. Alveolar breath samples were taken separately from healthy and diseased lungs before and after the tumor resection. Solid phase microextraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to assess the exhaled VOCs of the study participants. The VOCs exhibited significant differences between the contralateral and ipsilateral lungs before surgery, the contralateral and ipsilateral lungs after surgery, the ipsilateral lungs before and after surgery, and the blood samples from before and after surgery; 12, 19, 12 and 5 characteristic metabolites played decisive roles in sample classification, respectively. 2,2-Dimethyldecane, tetradecane, 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethylheptane, 2,3,4-trimethyldecane, nonane, 3,4,5,6-tetramethyloctane, and hexadecane may be generated from lipid peroxidation during surgery. Caprolactam and propanoic acid may be more promising exhaled breath biomarkers for lung cancer.