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Nano Research & Applications
ISSN 2471-9838
E u r o S c i C o n C o n f e r e n c e o n
Nanotechnology &
Smart Materials
O c t o b e r 0 4 - 0 6 , 2 0 1 8
Am s t e r d a m , N e t h e r l a n d s
Nanotechnology & Smart Materials 2018
A
mong the major goals of medicine, there is the preventive screening of
tumours in order to prevent their degeneration. Colorectal cancer (CRC)
shows a curability rate up to 90%, if identified at stage I. The work presented
here started in 2013 with the reproduction of an artificial intestine inside a
laboratory set-up, in order to find the best sensor array capable of recognizing
CRC-gaseous biomarkers produced by tumour cells inside a mixture of
intestinal interferers. After that, the approach changed, moving towards the
analysis of fecal exhalations. After a feasibility study, that lead to the foundation
of the start-up SCENT in 2015, the most efficient sensors combination was
chosen. This study was conducted in collaboration with Hospital S Anna of
Ferrara that provided the stool samples of people affected by CRC during
surgery. Controls were healthy volunteers. This passage was fundamental to
proof the recognition capability of sensors inside a portable device (SCENT
A1), patented in Europe, and composed of a core of five nanostructured
sensors, a pneumatic system and a specific electronics. After having obtained
the acceptance by the ethics committee, a clinical validation protocol started
in May 2016, to demonstrate the capability of SCENT A1 of identifying the
difference between fecal exhalation of healthy and CRC-affected subjects.
The protocol will end in 2019 and involves the Hospital S Anna and AUSL of
Ferrara and Ospedale del Delta of Lagosanto. The tests are compared to the
results of fecal occult blood test (FOBT) using colonoscopy as a gold standard.
A specific algorithm of analysis has been realized for data classification. On
100 comparisons, the method correctly classified the 90% of healthy subjects,
the 100% of CRC-affected and the 57% of low risk adenomas. If combined with
FOBT, our test will considerably improve specificity, eliminating a huge number
of non-operative colonoscopies
Biography
Giulia Zonta has completed her PhD in Matter Physics in
Apr’ 2017 at the University of Ferrara. She is now working
as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Physics and
Earth Sciences, working with the Sensors Laboratory team,
coordinated by Prof Cesare Malagù. She is the Sales Executive
and Co-Founder of the start-up SCENT S r l, with the aim of
realizing prototypes for tumour preventive screening and
monitoring. She has published on reputed international journals
and also a Reviewer. She is an Assistant in General Physic
course..
giulia.zonta@unife.itNanostructured sensors for colorectal cancer screening
device
G Zonta
1, 2
, N Landini
1, 2
and C Malagu
1, 2
1
University of Ferrara, Italy
2
SCENT S r l, Italy
G Zonta et al., Nano Res Appl Volume:4
DOI: 10.21767/2471-9838-C6-024