Exploiting Biospectroscopy as A Novel Screening Tool for Cervical Cancer: Towards A Framework to Validate its Accuracy in A Routine Clinical Setting

Abstract

Biospectroscopy is an emerging field that harnesses the platform of physical sciences with computational analysis in order to shed novel insights on biological questions. An area where this approach seems to have potential is in screening or diagnostic clinical settings, where there is an urgent need for new approaches to objectively interrogate large numbers of samples in an objective fashion with acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. This review outlines the benefits of biospectroscopy in screening for precancer lesions of the cervix due to its ability to separate different grades of dysplasia. It evaluates the feasibility of introducing this technique into cervical screening programs on the basis of its ability to identify biomarkers of progression within derived spectra ('biochemical‑cell fingerprints').

Histology Verification Demonstrates That Biospectroscopy Analysis of Cervical Cytology Identifies Underlying Disease More Accurately than Conventional Screening: Removing the Confounder of Discordance

“…Establishing national cervical cancer screening programmes in developing countries has failed as a result of the complexity of the infrastructure required and the intensity of competing health needs [23]. Part of the problem in running a successful programme is the poor sensitivity and a poor positive predictive value of cervical cytology [4], [46], [47].…”

“…Biospectroscopy approaches with multivariate analyses have shown potential to detect cell abnormalities at molecular levels, which occur before the changes in morphology are seen under the light microscope [8], [9], [18], [19]. Spectra obtained with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy differ from normal cytology to atypia and invasive disease [9], [18]–[23]. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is also capable of distinguishing between hrHPV infections in women exhibiting pre-cancerous cervical cellular atypia [24].…”

Vibrational spectroscopy of biofluids for disease screening or diagnosis: translation from the laboratory to a clinical setting

“…The enormous advantage of a real-time analytical monitoring device is that in the face of emerging disease such as neurodegeneration, one could take simple medications to slow down the progress of the pathology [103]. An obvious place to initially implement such a screening/diagnostic approach would be in the developing world where new inexpensive technologies are most likely to make a dramatic impact on population screening [17]. In addition, further validations in large multi-centred randomised control studies incorporating the gold standard of current diagnostic methods are required.…”

“…In this scenario, employing a specific labelling approach is unlikely to have the required generic applicability; one needs a molecular pathology tool capable of generating a fingerprint of all the constituents within this surrogate tissue, i.e., biofluid. One such approach is the application of biospectroscopy tools, including Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection FTIR (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy or Raman spectroscopy [17]. These approaches generate fingerprint spectra of biological material.…”

Segregation of ovarian cancer stage exploiting spectral biomarkers derived from blood plasma or serum analysis: ATR‐FTIR spectroscopy coupled with variable selection methods

“…An approach to ovarian cancer screening in the general population based on blood plasma or serum analyzed by ATR‐FTIR spectroscopy linked with variable selected methods for classification has the potential to segregate stages of disease. Our strategy identifies spectral markers or signatures that give an excellent sensitivity and specificity …”