A novel and cost-effective method for early lung cancer detection in immunized serum

Background: The aim of this study was to detect early lung cancer rapidly with a novel and cost-effective quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) immunosensor. Materials and Methods: Murine Lewis lung carcinoma LL⁄ 2 cells were first cultured onto the surface of 10MHz 3rd overtone AT-cut quartz crystals in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium, and then the serum sample of LL/2 cell immunized rabbits was also dripped onto the quartz crystal surface center by micro-injector. In addition, non-immune rabbit serum was used as a negative control. The additional mass of the crystal which caused by specifically adsorbing antibody results in a change in resonant frequency. A frequency counter was employed to monitor the frequency variation. Then the antibody content of the LL/2 cell can be detected rapidly through changed frequency. Results: The antibody contents of the LL/2 adsorbed on the surface of six quartz crystals were 155ng, 55ng, 55ng, 32ng, 32ng, 0ng, respectively. The results showed that the LL/2 antibodies could be detected if they exist in serum at nanogram level with a high detection precision and a positive detection rate of above 80%. Conclusions: Our test results reveal that the proposed method has potential application in detection of early lung cancer.This novel detection method might be particularly suited for health screening of the general population.