TY - JOUR A1 - Schallschmidt, Kristin A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Jung, Christian A1 - Bremser, Wolfram A1 - Nehls, Irene A1 - Leschber, G. A1 - Frese, S. A1 - Walles, T. A1 - Neudecker, J. T1 - Comparison of volatile organic compounds from lung cancer patients and healthy controls—challenges and limitations of an observational study N2 - The design and operation of an observational study on the profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the breath of 37 lung cancer patients and 23 healthy controls of similar age is outlined. The necessity to quantify each VOC considered as potential disease marker on basis of individual calibration is elaborated and the quality control measures required to maintain reproducibility in breath sampling and subsequent instrumental trace VOC analysis using SPME-GC-MS over a study period of 14 months are described. 24 VOC were quantified on basis of their previously suggested potential as cancer markers. The breath concentration levels of aromatic compounds was expectedly increased in smokers while lung cancer patients displayed significantly increased levels of oxygenated VOC such as aldehydes, 2-butanone and 1-butanol. Though sets of selected oxygenated VOC displayed sensitivities and specificities between 80 and 90% using linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross validation the effective selectivity of the breath VOC approach with regard to cancer detection is clearly limited. Results were discussed against the background of the literature on volatile cancer marker investigations and the prospects to link increased VOC levels in patients’ breath with approaches to employ sniffer dogs. Experiences from this study and the literature suggest that the current state of breath VOC based discrimination between cancer patients and healthy controls is hardly improvable. Observational studies tend to observe significant differences mostly in levels of certain oxygenated VOC but without resolution required for practical application. Any step towards practicable exploitation of VOC profile differences for illness detection would have to solve current restrictions set by the low and variable VOC concentrations. Further challenges are the technical complexity of studies involving breath sampling and possibly the limited capability of current analytical procedures to detect instable marker candidates. KW - Breath KW - Volatile organic compounds KW - Marker KW - Cancer KW - Gas chromatography KW - Solid phase microextraction KW - Volatilome PY - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/10/4/046007 SN - 1752-7155 SN - 1752-7163 VL - 10 IS - 4 SP - Article 046007, 1 EP - 17 PB - IOP Publishing AN - OPUS4-37801 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Buge, Hans-Gerhard A1 - Bremser, Wolfram A1 - Nehls, Irene T1 - Mineral oil content in sediments and soils: comparability, traceability and a certified reference material for quality assurance N2 - The performance of twelve laboratories with previously established proficiency in the determination of the mineral oil content in a fresh water sediment is described. The summation parameter total petrol hydrocarbon (TPH) is defined according to ISO 16703:2004 with regard to the sample preparation to be applied, the flame ionisation detection (FID) and the boiling range of C10–C40 to be integrated. Comprehensive tests of homogeneity and stability have been carried out on the candidate material using appropriate models. The outcome of the study served as the basis for the certification of the candidate reference material as ERM-CC015a. The certified mass fraction is 1,820±130mgkg-1 and traceability was established by using an appropriate calibration standard certified for the mass fraction of C10–C40. The interlaboratory scatter of measurement results in this exercise can largely be explained by the variability of the individual calibrations based on this common calibration standard. KW - Total petroleum hydrocarbons KW - Extraction KW - Gas chromatography KW - Calibration KW - Interlaboratory study PY - 2006 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-006-0423-4 SN - 1618-2642 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 385 IS - 3 SP - 645 EP - 651 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-12399 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -