Development of a customized diagnostic test for lung cancer

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The polyamine pathway has been demonstrated to be significantly up-regulated in cancer cells. Preliminary studies by our industry collaborator, BioMark Diagnostics Inc, have indicated that metabolites of the polyamine pathway may serve as robust diagnostic biomarkers for lung cancer. In our previously funded NSERC Engage project, we measured polyamine metabolites in lung cancer by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. A number of other metabolites were also measured, including lipids, biogenic amines, and amino acids. Bioinformatics and statistical analysis revealed that the inclusion of 4 of these additional metabolites increased the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing lung cancer compared to the sensitivity and specificity provided by the polyamine metabolites alone. Based on this work and consultation with BioMark, we have identified 13 metabolite biomarkers that were able to distinguish between control (healthy) and lung cancer samples.