Patent ID: 9638695
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: G01N

Claim:
1. A non-invasive method of detecting or screening for a lung cancer disease state in a subject specimen, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining an exhaled breath sample from the subject specimen, wherein the exhaled breath sample includes one or more carbonyl-containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), wherein the one or more carbonyl-containing VOCs is selected from the group consisting of 2-butanone,2-hydroxyacetaldehyde, 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, 4-hydroxy-2-hexenal (4-HHE), 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), and a mixture of C passing the exhaled breath sample through a chemical preconcentrator comprising a reactive chemical compound and reacting the one or more carbonyl-containing VOCs in the exhaled breath sample with the reactive chemical compound to form charged adducts of the one or more carbonyl-containing VOCs, wherein the reactive chemical compound has a general formula (I) of: wherein Z is NH, NR or O; L is a Linking group; Y is a di-substituted or tri-substituted N or P moiety; R is selected from the group consisting of alkyls, aralkyls, aralkenyls, and aralkynyls, each of which may be substituted or unsubstituted, and optionally contain one or more heteroatoms, and wherein the plurality of carbonyl-containing VOCs react with the reactive chemical compound via a condensation reaction to form adducts thereof; quantifying one or more of the charged adducts of the one or more carbonyl-containing VOCs to establish a subject value for the one or more of the charged adducts; and comparing each subject value to a threshold healthy specimen value for the one or more of the charged adducts of the one or more carbonyl-containing VOCs, the threshold healthy specimen value corresponding to a value calculated from healthy specimens, in order to determine the presence of one or more subject values at quantities greater than their respective threshold healthy specimen values, thereby indicating a lung cancer disease state in the subject specimen.