SBIR-STTR Award

In the U.S., prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, and one in six men will eventually develop prostate cancer during his lifetime. Currently, the prostate specific antigen test and digital rectal examination are the most predominant used tools for prostate cancer detection, but both methods have low specificity and poorly predict the presence of aggressive prostate cancer. To that end, researchers and clinicians have worked to discover novel biomarkers that would give an early indication of the disease with high accuracy. iSense Medical Corp. has developed a sensor platform that enables the identification of cancer from metabolomic biomarkers in urine headspace. The cancer cell metabolism produces unique volatile organic compounds that partitions to blood and then excretes into urine, which can be measured in the urine headspace using our colorimetric sensor array technology. In this work, we propose the detection of prostate cancer from urine headspace analysis. If successful, this assay will offer a non-invasive, rapid (<1 hour), low-cost (order $10), point-of-care diagnostic tool for early detection and assessment of aggressiveness of prostate cancer.

Thesaurus Terms:
Acids;Amines;Base;Biological Assay;Biological Markers;Blood;Body Temperature;Cancer Cell;Cancer Detection;Cancer Etiology;Cancer Patient;Cessation Of Life;Clinic;Clinical;Clinical Research;Collection;Consent Forms;Cost;Data;Design;Detection;Diagnosis;Digital Rectal Examination;Discrimination (Psychology);Disease;Early Diagnosis;Exhibits;Experience;Freezing;Heating;High Risk;High Temperature Of Physical Object;Hour;Improved;Indolent;Institutional Review Boards;Malignant Neoplasm Of Lung;Malignant Neoplasm Of Prostate;Malignant Neoplasms;Measures;Medical;Men;Metabolic;Metabolism;Metabolomics;Methods;Novel;Organic Acid;Patient Selection;Patients;Phase;Phase 1 Study;Phase 2 Study;Pilot Projects;Point-Of-Care Diagnostics;Procedures;Prospective;Prostate-Specific Antigen;Protocols Documentation;Psa Level;Public Health Relevance;Relative (Related Person);Reporting;Research;Research Personnel;Salts;Sample Size;Sampling;Sensor;Serum Psa;Specificity;Staging;Technology;Temperature;Testing;Tool;Tumor;Urine;Volatile Organic Compound;Work;