Electronic nose technology in the diagnosis of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a significant problem in modern oncourology due to its high incidence and mortality, largely due to untimely diagnosis of the disease. This article provides an overview of current diagnostic methods, including biopsy and magnetic resonance imaging, highlighting their limitations such as invasiveness and insufficient sensitivity. Given the need for more accurate and non-invasive diagnostic techniques, the potential use of an “electronic nose” — a multisensory system capable of detecting volatile organic compounds in urine samples — is explored. The literature review indicates that the use of this technique may offer high sensitivity and specificity in detecting prostate cancer, comparable to results obtained from specially trained detection dogs. The article analyzes recent clinical studies that validate the effectiveness of the electronic nose in identifying prostate cancer and describes the machine learning methodologies employed for recognizing urine samples. It is important to create uniform standards for the analysis of the gas composition of urine using the electronic nose. For the widespread implementation of this diagnostic method, it is necessary to conduct large randomized studies with the formation of a sufficient evidence base.