title: [Serum diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using surface-enhanced desorption ionization mass spectrometry and artificial neural network analyses].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The early diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the key factor that affecting the treatment result. We performed surface-enhanced desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) using a multi-layer artificial neural network (ANN) to develop and evaluate a proteomic diagnosis approach for HNSCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum samples from 74 HNSCC patients and 146 healthy individuals were randomized into training set (148 samples) and test set (72 samples). At first, we detected the training set of samples using SELDI mass spectrometry and WCX2 (weak cation-exchange) chips. Using a multi-layer ANN with a back propagation algorithm, we identified a proteomic pattern that could discriminate cancer from control samples in the training set. The discovered pattern was then used to determine the accuracy of the classification system in the test set.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four top-scored peaks, at m/z (mass/charge) ratio of 4 469 u, 5 924 u, 8 926 u, and 16 697 u, were finally selected as the potential biomarkers for detection of HNSCC with both sensitivity and specificity of 100.0% in the training set. The classifier predicted the HNSCC with sensitivity of 85.7%(18/21) and specificity of 96.1%(49/51) in the test set.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SELDI profiling is a useful tool to accurately identify patients with HNSCC.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou,Guangdong, 510060, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Su-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Fu-Jin
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: An-Kui
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wen-Kuan
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ning-Wei
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D040081:Protein Array Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*; D040901:Proteomics; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D020543:Proteome