Babes-Bolyai University

Raman Spectroscopy for In Vivo Cancer Diagnosis

Babes-Bolyai University

Faculty of Physics

Introduction /Motivation
Cancer, known medically as a malignant neoplasm , is a broad group of various diaseas, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The most common type of cancer women and men both can have are the skin cancers -the gold-standard for diagnosis of these lesions is biopsy -this process is both invasive and time-consuming Another important cancer type is the breast cancer -the most common technique to detect breast cancer is screening mammography -dependent only on the morphology and density of the specimen leading to no definitive criteria for distinguishing malignant from benignant tissue [1] Andrew T Harris et al. Head & Neck Oncology 2010, 2:26 [2] Abigail S. Haka et al. PNAS _ August 30, 2005 _ vol. 102 no. 35 _ 12373

Babes-Bolyai University

Faculty of Physics

In recent years there has been much interest in the use of optical diagnostics in cancer detection. Vibrational Raman spectras provide useful information on the molecular composition of human tissues permitting the unambiguous differentiation of cancerous and normal tissues. Raman spectroscopy is ideal for in vivo tissue diagnosis, as it is nondestructive, does not require external dyes, and can be applied via fiber-based or conventional optics-based instrumentation with clinically feasible measurement times. Challenge -Raman spectra of biological samples are typically very weak -human tissues irradiated by laser light often emit fluorescence, which ruins entirely the otherwise useful Raman spectrum -the Raman signal from the tissue is masked by the strong Raman signal generated by the optical fiber

[3]Urs Utzinger et al. Applied Spectroscopy, Volume 55, Number 8, 2001 [2] Chad A. Lieber et al. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 40:461467 (2008)

Babes-Bolyai University

Faculty of Physics

Experimental Setup

[1]Jianhua Zhao et al. New Developments in Biomedical Engineering

Babes-Bolyai University

Faculty of Physics

Results

Babes-Bolyai University Breast cancer

As shown in Fig. 5, a significant difference is observed between normal and cancer tissues. The intensity of the bands associated with lipid structures (bands around 2,854,2,895, and 3,010 cm-1) is stronger for normal tissue than that for cancer tissue. Furthermore water Raman signal in the frequency region from 3,100 to 3,550 cm-1 is larger in cancer tissue than in normal and benign tissues.

Faculty of Physics

[1] A. F. Garca-Flores et al. Theor Chem Acc, 2011

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Multivariate statistical analysis was implemented for classification between normal and cancer tissues. Here, all spectra were analyzed by PCA and LDA. These statistical methods have been used with success for distinguishing cancerous tissue from normal and benign tissues based on their Raman spectra. The separation between normal and abnormal tissues for measurements without the skin influence is very clear, as shown in Fig. 6b, c, while for transcutaneous measurement is difficult to separate these two types of tissues in the scatter plot as shown Fig. 6a.

Faculty of Physics

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Faculty of Physics Lung cancer

The two-dimensional plot clearly separates the normal and cancerous Raman spectra and also those of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma tissues.

[1] Shoji Kaminaka et al. J. Raman Spectrosc. 2002; 33: 498502

Babes-Bolyai University

Faculty of Physics

Conclusions
Raman spectroscopy could be an important tool in cancer diagnosis, becouse this kind of method allows to distinguishing different types of cancers at a molecular level. Raman spectra are informative enough to make a distinction not only between normal and cancerous tissues but also between cancerous tissues of different types Its a noninvasive and really quick method .

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