Advancing Breast Cancer Screening: A Novel Metal Oxide Sensor-Based e-Nose Approach for Low-cost and Comprehensive Urinary Biomarker Profiling
ABSTRACT
Breast cancer (BC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality globally. Despite advances in screening programs, early detection remains a challenge, particularly among women aged 20-45 years, where diagnoses frequently occur at advanced stages due to the absence of routine screening.
This study aimed to validate and extend previous findings regarding a novel diagnostic approach utilizing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine for the early detection of BC across diverse age groups. Utilizing an enhanced prototype device featuring Metal Oxide Sensors coupled with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, a comprehensive analysis of urinary VOCs was conducted among a cohort of symptomatic and asymptomatic women. Diagnostic performance metrics, including sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, were rigorously evaluated and compared with established diagnostic modalities.
The application of the refined device and AI techniques yielded promising diagnostic accuracy metrics, with sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of 88.33%, 74.50%, and 83.32%, respectively. These findings validate and extend prior research, demonstrating the potential of urinary VOC analysis and AI-driven techniques as a promising approach for early BC detection across diverse age groups, including women aged 20-45 years.
BIOGRAPHY
Fadi Kurdahi received his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1987. Since then, he has been a faculty at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UCI, where he conducts research in the areas of Computer Aided Design and design methodology of large-scale systems. Fadi served as the Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Studies of the Samueli School of Engineering 2017-2022, and since 2012 as the Director of the Center for Embedded & Cyber-physical Systems (CECS), comprised of world-class researchers in the general area of Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems.
Fadi Kurdahi served on numerous editorial boards and was program chair or general chair on program committees of several workshops, symposia and conferences in the area of CAD, VLSI, and system design. Fadi received the best paper awards for the IEEE Transactions on VLSI in 2002, ISQED in 2006 and ASP-DAC in 2016, and other distinguished paper awards at DAC, EuroDAC, ASP- DAC and ISQED. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus award from his Alma Mater, the American University of Beirut in 2008. Fadi is a Fellow of the IEEE and the AAAS.