Thermal Liquid Biopsy (TLB): A Predictive Score Derived from Serum Thermograms as a Clinical Tool for Screening Lung Cancer Patients
20 pags, 5 figs, 7 tabs ; Risk population screening programs are instrumental for advancing cancer management and reducing economic costs of therapeutic interventions and the burden of the disease, as well as increasing the survival rate and improving the quality of life for cancer patients. Lung cancer, with high incidence and mortality rates, is not excluded from this situation. The success of screening programs relies on many factors, with some of them being the appropriate definition of the risk population and the implementation of detection techniques with an optimal discrimination power and strong patient adherence. Liquid biopsy based on serum or plasma detection of circulating tumor cells or DNA/RNA is increasingly employed nowadays, but certain limitations constrain its wide application. In this work, we present a new implementation of thermal liquid biopsy (TLB) for lung cancer patients. TLB provides a prediction score based on the ability to detect plasma/serum proteome alterations through calorimetric thermograms that strongly correlates with the presence of lung cancer disease (91% accuracy rate, 90% sensitivity, 92% specificity, diagnostic odds ratio 104). TLB is a quick, minimally-invasive, low-risk technique that can be applied in clinical practice for evidencing lung cancer, and it can be used in screening and monitoring actions. ; This research was funded by Miguel Servet Program from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII13/00017 to OA); Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and European Union (ERDF/ESF, 'Investing in your future') (PI15/00663 and PI18/00349 to OA, and PI17/01109 to AL); Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BFU2016-78232-P to AVC); Diputación General de Aragón (Protein Targets and Bioactive Compounds Group – E45_17R to AVC, and Digestive Pathology Group – E25_17R to OA and AL); and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd). ; Peer reviewed