ArticleBMC surgery2025
Urine-based nematode chemotaxis assay (N-NOSE) as a predictor of recurrence after curative surgery for resectable pancreatic cancer: preliminary data and single center experience.
Article in BMC surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Manual and Fully Automated Chemotaxis-Based Cancer Screening Yield Equivalent Performance: A Nine-Month Real-World, Side-by-Side Study of the N-NOSE Workflow.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Olfactory Science and Technology in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: From Invertebrate Models to Artificial Intelligence.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
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14 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the most lethal malignancies, with high recurrence rates even after curative-intent surgery. Current surveillance tools, including imaging and serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9, have limitations in specificity and sensitivity. N-NOSE is a urine-based assay using the chemotactic behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans to detect cancer-associated volatile organic compounds. This study prospectively evaluated the prognostic value of N-NOSE in patients undergoing curative surgery for resectable PC.
methodsTwenty-four patients with resectable PC, all treated with preoperative gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy followed by curative-intent pancreatectomy, were enrolled. The chemotaxis index was measured at three time points: before treatment, after preoperative chemotherapy, and postoperatively. Recurrence within two years was assessed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of recurrence, and recurrence-free survival was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier methods.
resultsDuring the two-year follow-up, 13 patients (54.2%) experienced recurrence. Univariate analysis identified pre-treatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio > 1.53 (p = 0.04), pathological lymph node metastasis (p = 0.04), and pre-treatment N-NOSE positivity (p = 0.007) as significant predictors. Multivariate analysis confirmed pre-treatment N-NOSE positivity as the only independent predictor (odds ratio: 3.10 × 10⁷; 95% CI: 11.38-; p = 0.03). In patients who recurred, the chemotaxis index increased significantly after surgery (p = 0.02), while remaining stable in non-recurrent cases.
conclusionsPre-treatment N-NOSE positivity and postoperative increases in chemotaxis index were associated with recurrence after curative-intent surgery for resectable PC. This simple, non-invasive urine assay shows promise as a novel prognostic biomarker to enable earlier detection of recurrence, refine postoperative surveillance, and support personalized patient management.
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