Exhaled volatile organic compounds in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: cross sectional and nested short-term follow-up study

Table 3 Statistical differences between groups.

	NSCLC vs. Controls	COPD vs. Controls	Smokers vs. Controls	NSCLC vs. COPD	NSCLC vs. Smokers	COPD vs. Smokers
Isoprene	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	p < 0.05	n.s.	P < 0.01
2-Methylpentane	p < 0.001	p < 0.05	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	n.s.	P < 0.05
Pentane	p < 0.001	p < 0.05	p < 0.05	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Ethylbenzene	p < 0.01	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	p < 0.05	n.s.	n.s.
Xylenes total	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Trimethylbenzene	p < 0.01	p < 0.001	p < 0.001	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Toluene	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	P < 0.01
Benzene	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	P < 0.05
Heptane	n.s.	p < 0.01	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.
Decane	p < 0.001	p < 0.01	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Styrene	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.	P < 0.001
Octane	p < 0.001	p < 0.01	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
Pentamethylheptane	p < 0.001	n.s.	p < 0.001	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.

The significance of the multiple comparisons inside the individual univariate tests. ANOVA followed by Games Howell Post Hoc test for benzene and toluene, Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's Post Hoc test for all the other VOCs were performed.

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