Oral cancer screening: serum Raman spectroscopic approach

Abstract

Serum Raman spectroscopy (RS) has previously shown potential in oral cancer diagnosis and recurrence prediction. To evaluate the potential of serum RS in oral cancer screening, premalignant and cancer-specific detection was explored in the present study using 328 subjects belonging to healthy controls, premalignant, disease controls, and oral cancer groups. Spectra were acquired using a Raman microprobe. Spectral findings suggest changes in amino acids, lipids, protein, DNA, and β-carotene across the groups. A patient-wise approach was employed for data analysis using principal component linear discriminant analysis. In the first step, the classification among premalignant, disease control (nonoral cancer), oral cancer, and normal samples was evaluated in binary classification models. Thereafter, two screening-friendly classification approaches were explored to further evaluate the clinical utility of serum RS: a single four-group model and normal versus abnormal followed by determining the type of abnormality model. Results demonstrate the feasibility of premalignant and specific cancer detection. The normal versus abnormal model yields better sensitivity and specificity rates of 64 and 80%; these rates are comparable to standard screening approaches. Prospectively, as the current screening procedure of visual inspection is useful mainly for high-risk populations, serum RS may serve as a useful adjunct for early and specific detection of oral precancers and cancer.

Raman exfoliative cytology for prognosis prediction in oral cancers: A proof of concept study

“…Raman spectroscopy (RS), a vibrational spectroscopic method sensitive to subtle biochemical perturbations in biological systems, has been extensively explored in disease and cancer diagnosis , including management of oral cancers . More importantly, RS has also shown potential in identifying subclinical cancer‐field effects (CFEs) or malignancy‐associated‐changes (MACs) in oral cancer patients .…”

Spectral model for diagnosis of acute leukemias in whole blood and plasma through Raman spectroscopy

“…15 These numbers motivate the search for new methods and techniques that can reduce the time interval between the hypothesis and the diagnostic conclusion in favor of better prognoses for the patients. 15 Raman spectroscopy (RS) is an optical technique capable of identifying biochemical changes in biological tissues and fluids related to pathological conditions, [16][17][18] diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in blood serum 19,20 as well as quantifying human blood and serum components in vitro. 21 RS has been applied to identify spectral information referring to blood cells and biochemical elements present in the blood, such as amino acids, proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carotenoids, 21 and the technique has been gaining importance in the field of diagnostics of different types of leukemia using cell lines, 22 blood smears, 23 and blood serum samples.…”

Raman Spectroscopy of Blood and Blood Components

“…172 In 2015, they repeated the study using a larger subject cohort (328 donors, 785 nm excitation) and an added dimension of evaluating the serum for the detection of premalignant chemical conditions. 173 Another 2015 study from the group investigated the feasibility of discriminating between serum from patients suffering from malignant tumors who had endured a recurrence of their cancer post-surgery and serum from patients suffering from malignant tumors who had not. While the spectra reported negligible pre-surgery differences between serum from recurrence and nonrecurrence patients, the post-surgery spectra revealed measurable differences.…”