A Screening Test for Early Diagnosis of Microcellular Bronchopulmonary Cancer-Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: According to WHO, in worldwide cancer mortality statistics, the first place is occupied by bronchopulmonary cancer. This reason has led us to carry out the present pilot study, was with the participation of the Clinics of Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest in order to apply a technique developed earlier by Stefan-van Staden, for early detection of this type of cancer, initiate a personalized diagnosis, and implicitly apply a personalized treatment in order to increase the life expectancy among these patients. In recent years, there has been a tendency to find fast non-invasive screening methods for the early diagnosis of cancer. Therefore, the present pilot study proposed simultaneous detection of tumor markers (NSE and CEA) by different methods: (1) ELISA kits, (2) the method developed earlier by Stefan-van Staden—which used stochastic sensors, and (3) IHC. All selected patients selected by Dr Claudiu-Eduard Nistor, were suspected of microcellular bronchopulmonary cancer. Tumor tissue samples were collected by conventional and minimally invasive surgical techniques. The results obtained for the detection of markers in blood using ELISA, and stochastic methods (based on stochastic sensors) were correlated with the results obtained using anatomopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of the tumor tissues. Experimental: Stochastic sensors have been used to analyze NSE in blood samples and whole tissues. The IHC was performed for analyzing tumor tissue using standard procedures. ELISA has been used as a standard method to determine specific biomarkers in whole blood samples. Results and discussion: A good correlation was found for results obtained using stochastic and ELISA methods, and IHC for blood and tissue analysis. Statistical evaluation of the data showed that the results of whole blood analysis are correlating very good with the analysis of pulmonary tumor tissue. Therefore, the stochastic method can be used for the detection and for the pursuit of therapeutic efficiency. Conclusions: The data obtained, as well as the statistics, showed that the proposed method can be used as a screening method for fast and early detection of microcellular bronchopulmonary, being minim invasive. It can also be used for monitoring the therapeutic efficiency of the prescribed medication.