Minimally invasive detection of cancer using metabolic changes in tumor-associated natural killer cells with Oncoimmune probes

Natural Killer (NK) cells, a subset of innate immune cells, undergo cancer-specific changes during tumor progression. Therefore, tracking NK cell activity in circulation has potential for cancer diagnosis. Identification of tumor associated NK cells remains a challenge as most of the cancer antigens are unknown. Here, we introduce tumor-associated circulating NK cell profiling (CNKP) as a stand-alone cancer diagnostic modality with a liquid biopsy. Metabolic profiles of NK cell activation as a result of tumor interaction are detected with a SERS functionalized OncoImmune probe platform. We show that the cancer stem cell-associated NK cell is of value in cancer diagnosis. Through machine learning, the features of NK cell activity in patient blood could identify cancer from non-cancer using 5uL of peripheral blood with 100% accuracy and localization of cancer with 93% accuracy. These results show the feasibility of minimally invasive cancer diagnostics using circulating NK cells.