Joint detection of tumor markers with imaging ellipsometry biosensor

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Oncology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Tumor marker detection aids early cancer diagnosis but often lacks specificity.
• Current methods struggle to provide definitive cancer confirmation solely based on single markers.
• Combined analysis of multiple tumor markers can potentially enhance diagnostic accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of joint tumor marker detection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis.
• To assess the performance of a label-free, phase-sensitive, high-throughput imaging ellipsometry biosensor (IEB) for this purpose.
• To determine if combined detection improves diagnostic specificity compared to individual markers.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative detection of three HCC-related tumor markers: alpha-fetoprotein, alpha-l-fucosidase, and ferritin.
• Utilized a novel label-free, phase-sensitive, high-throughput imaging ellipsometry biosensor (IEB).
• Analyzed 82 human serum samples, comparing IEB results with established clinical standards.

Main Results:

• IEB demonstrated quantitative detection of the selected tumor markers with results consistent with clinical standards.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed a significant improvement in diagnostic specificity for HCC when using joint marker detection with IEB.
• The IEB system proved effective for high-throughput analysis of clinical samples.

Conclusions:

• Joint detection of alpha-fetoprotein, alpha-l-fucosidase, and ferritin using IEB significantly enhances specificity for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis.
• The label-free, phase-sensitive IEB biosensor shows considerable potential for improving the clinical diagnosis of cancer.
• This approach offers a promising avenue for more accurate and reliable early cancer detection.