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Niccolò Varesano



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    MA10 - Emerging Technologies for Lung Cancer Detection (ID 129)

    • Event: WCLC 2019
    • Type: Mini Oral Session
    • Track: Screening and Early Detection
    • Presentations: 1
    • Now Available
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      MA10.05 - Breath Analysis: New Key-Challenges for Early Detection of Lung and Pleural Neoplasms (Now Available) (ID 959)

      15:15 - 16:45  |  Author(s): Niccolò Varesano

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background

      The growing interest about breath analysis relies on the need of tools to get an early diagnosis of respiratory pathologies with high mortality rate such as lung cancer (LC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Nowadays the key-challenge of the scientific community is the search for non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers able to identify patients at risk of developing cancer or with early stage cancer. A diagnostic progress would be crucial to improve the survival outcome of these neoplasms, generally detected at an advanced stage. The analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) pattern in human breath for early detection and follow-up of diseases such as cancer is low-cost, non-invasive and promising alternative to traditional exams (i.e., colonoscopy, biopsy).

      Method

      This study is based on the development and validation of a methodological approach aimed to the identification of VOCs breath pattern to discriminate between patients affected by both LC and MPM, and healthy controls (CTRL). A total of 80 breath samples from 36 patients with LC, 14 patients with MPM and 30 CTRL have been collected into inert Tedlar bags, transferred to sorbent tubes (biomonitoring, Markes) and analysed by TD-GC/MS (TD Markes Unity 2 - GC Agilent 7890/MS Agilent 5975).

      Result

      Non parametric test as Wilcoxon/Kruskal Wallis tests (R version 3.5.1) allowed to identify the most weighting variables in discrimination between LC, MPM and HC breath samples. On the basis of p-values lower than 0.05 (selection between CTRL and LC, and between CTRL and MPM) and current knowledge on metabolic processes, a multivariate statistics (Principal Components Analyses (PCA) -PAST 3.20) has been applied on breath samples, considering only selected variables. The preliminary statistical elaboration by PCA of data collected from the analysis of LC and CTRL samples have shown two principal components: PC1 characterized by higher loadings of benzoic acid, methylcyclohexane and hexanal, and PC2 characterized by high loadings for dimethyldecane, pentane and pentanal. Similar results were obtained by PCA applied to MPM and CTRL breath samples considering 2-methylpentane, cyclopentane, hexane and 2-butanone as discriminant variables.

      Conclusion

      PCA was able to discriminate between LC and CTRL and between MPM and CTRL breath samples. Leave-one-out cross-validation method was applied to calculate the prediction accuracy obtaining good sensitivity (88%), accuracy (86%) and specificity (92%).

      Further investigation about breath analysis is strongly warranted, due to the need of biomarkers potentially useful both for the screening of high-risk subjects and for the early diagnosis of lung and pleural neoplasms.

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    P2.10 - Prevention and Tobacco Control (ID 176)

    • Event: WCLC 2019
    • Type: Poster Viewing in the Exhibit Hall
    • Track: Prevention and Tobacco Control
    • Presentations: 1
    • Now Available
    • Moderators:
    • Coordinates: 9/09/2019, 10:15 - 18:15, Exhibit Hall
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      P2.10-06 - Smoking Prevalence and Perceptions Among Healthcare Professionals: A Survey in an Italian Clinical Cancer Centre (Now Available) (ID 840)

      10:15 - 18:15  |  Author(s): Niccolò Varesano

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background

      A survey has been conducted on employees of our Clinical Cancer Centre about the smoking prevalence and knowledge of the smoking-related harms. The results have been compared to those emerged from a previous survey when the current smoke-free-hospital policies (national and internal) were not yet active.

      Method

      In June 2017, during two weeks, 400 subjects received an anonymous questionnaire (36items) investigating demographics, smoking-habits, secondhand-smoke exposure, knowledge of Italian smoke-free legislation.

      Result

      img_0301_1.jpg104 subjects (26%) returned the self-completed form (M=45.34years, SD=10.5; 67.3%women). 17,8%of responders were smokers, 26,2%former smokers, 56% no smokers, while in 23,8% the data were missing. Among the former smokers, the mean age of smoking cessation was 33,3 years (sd=10,2), without drugs in 77,3% of cases, for the following reasons: preventive health purposes (29,6%),a child birth (26%),suggestions from family members (3,%); no one stopped on medical advice. The ex-or never smokers share the working room with one (23,2%) or more (8,5%) smokers, pointing out the smoke exposure in hospital (30%), and feeling intense uneasiness (46,8%). The smoke-free-hospitals policy is not fully accepted, indeed only 40% declared that the smoking ban is observed and 63,2% said to smoke during the working-time.

      Regarding the policies that prohibit smoking inside and outside the hospital, the responders perceived it as a good way to protect the health (65,4%), to reduce the prevalence of smokers in hospital (20%), to protect non-smokers (46,1%) and to decrease tobacco-related disorders (37,5%) (p<0,001). The implementation of Italian smoke-free policies has favoured the reduction of the number of smoked cigarettes (55%), but did not increase the desire of a complete cessation (63%). A comparison of the surveys conducted in 2014 and 2017 is showed in Figure.

      Conclusion

      The adopted strategies are partially efficient; among personnel there is a large prevalence of smokers and interventions aimed at the development of a culture of health promotion are needed.

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