Advances in gas chromatographic methods for the identification of biomarkers in cancer

Screening complex biological specimens such as exhaled air, tissue, blood and urine to identify biomarkers in different forms of cancer has become increasingly popular over the last decade, mainly due to new instruments and improved bioinformatics. However, despite some progress, the identification of biomarkers has shown to be a difficult task with few new biomarkers (excluding recent genetic markers) being considered for introduction to clinical analysis. This review describes recent advances in gas chromatographic methods for the identification of biomarkers in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It presents a general overview of cancer metabolism, the current biomarkers used for cancer diagnosis and treatment, a background to metabolic changes in tumors, an overview of current GC methods, and collectively presents the scope and outlook of GC methods in oncology.