Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among men. It is an asymptomatic and slow growing tumour, which starts occurring in young men, but can be detected only around the age of 40–50.
Although its long latency period and potential curability make prostate cancer a perfect candidate for screening programs, the current procedure lacks in specificity. Researchers are rising to the challenge of developing innovative tools able of detecting the disease during its early stage that is the most curable. In recent years, the interest in characterisation of biological fluids aimed at the identification of tumour-specific compounds has increased significantly, since cell neoplastic transformation causes metabolic alterations leading to volatile organic compounds release. In the scientific literature, different approaches have been proposed. Many studies focus on the identification of a cancer-characteristic odour fingerprint; emanated from biological samples through the application of sensorial or senso-instrumental analyses, others suggest a chemical characterisation of biological fluids with the aim of identifying prostate cancer (PCa)-specific biomarkers. This paper focuses on the review of literary studies in the field of prostate cancer diagnosis, in order to provide an overview of innovative methods based on the analysis of urine, thereby comparing them with the traditional diagnostic procedures.
Cancers. 2018 Apr 18*** epublish ***
Carmen Bax, Gianluigi Taverna, Lidia Eusebio, Selena Sironi, Fabio Grizzi, Giorgio Guazzoni, Laura Capelli
Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ., Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Department of Urology, via Manzoni 56, Rozzano, 20089 Milan, Italy. ., Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ., Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. ., Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, via Manzoni 56, Rozzano, 20089 Milan, Italy. ., Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Department of Urology, via Manzoni 56, Rozzano, 20089 Milan, Italy. ., Politecnico di Milano, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy. .
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