Abstract
Background: AminoIndexTM Cancer Screening (AICS) was developed as a novel cancer screening test to determine the probabilities of various cancers and is now in being used in practice. The AICS test is based on "AminoIndex Technology", in which a comparative multivariate analysis of the plasma free amino acid (PFAA) concentration is conducted between cancer patients and healthy controls. In this study, we report the sensitivities of AICS for various cancers in comparison with those for the existing tumor markers.
Methods: Plasma amino acid concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and AICS values were calculated in patients with gastric cancer (n = 177), lung cancer (n = 311),colorectal (n = 257) and breast cancer (n = 160), respectively. The sensitivities of AICS for the various cancers were evaluated in comparison with those for the existing tumor markers.
Results: The sensitivities of AICS (gastric), AICS (lung), AICS (colorectal) and AICS (breast) for early stages of the corresponding cancers were 40％, 38％, 32% and 24%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those for the existing tumor markers. Also, slightly higher sensitivities were obtained when the AICS test was used in combination with the existing tumor markers.
Conclusion: These results suggested that AICS would be a useful in cancer screening for the early detection of various cancers as compared with screening using existing tumor markers.
