ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Analytical Chemistry
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1672220
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Analytical ChemistryView all 4 articles
The detection of serum‑volatile organic compounds in the diagnostics of hepatocellular carcinoma using gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, China
- 2Hunan Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
- 3Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
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The third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a malignant liver tumor that usually arises in patients with cirrhosis and chronic liver disease. New biomarkers are required for bidirectional validation of HCC in clinical practice because of its early asymptomatic stage, high mortality rate, and rapid tumor growth, as well as the high rate of false-positive results obtained for the commonly used serum marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). This study used gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) combined with chemometrics to analyze the differences in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the serum of patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in order to explore new biomarkers of HCC. The GC-IMS analysis detected 31 VOCs in serum, including 8 ketones, 11 aldehydes, 6 alcohols, 2 esters, and 1 furans, many of which differed in content between the controls and the patients with HCC.
Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, biomarkers, Serum, Volatile Organic Compounds, GC-IMS, chemometrics
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Xie, Ai, Zhang, Yu and Ye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xu Ye, yexu@hnca.org.cn
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