Review of cancer cell volatile organic compounds: their metabolism and evolution

Cancer is ranked as the top cause of premature mortality. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced from catalytic peroxidation by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and have become a highly attractive non-invasive cancer screening approach. For future clinical applications, however, the correlation between cancer hallmarks and cancer-specific VOCs requires further study. This review discusses and compares cellular metabolism, signal transduction as well as mitochondrial metabolite translocation in view of cancer evolution and the basic biology of VOCs production. Certain cancerous characteristics as well as the origin of the ROS removal system date back to procaryotes and early eukaryotes and share commonalities with non-cancerous proliferative cells. This calls for future studies on metabolic cross talks and regulation of the VOCs production pathway.