Types of spectroscopy and microscopy techniques for cancer diagnosis: a review

Abstract

Cancer is a life-threatening disease that has claimed the lives of many people worldwide. With the current diagnostic methods, it is hard to determine cancer at an early stage, due to its versatile nature and lack of genomic biomarkers. The rapid development of biophotonics has emerged as a potential tool in cancer detection and diagnosis. Using the fluorescence, scattering, and absorption characteristics of cells and tissues, it is possible to detect cancer at an early stage. The diagnostic techniques addressed in this review are highly sensitive to the chemical and morphological changes in the cell and tissue during disease progression. These changes alter the fluorescence signal of the cell/tissue and are detected using spectroscopy and microscopy techniques including confocal and two-photon fluorescence (TPF). Further, second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy reveals the morphological changes that occurred in non-centrosymmetric structures in the tissue, such as collagen. Again, Raman spectroscopy is a non-destructive method that provides a fingerprinting technique to differentiate benign and malignant tissue based on Raman signal. Photoacoustic microscopy and spectroscopy of tissue allow molecule-specific detection with high spatial resolution and penetration depth. In addition, terahertz spectroscopic studies reveal the variation of tissue water content during disease progression. In this review, we address the applications of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques for cancer detection based on the optical properties of the tissue. The discussed state-of-the-art techniques successfully determines malignancy to its rapid diagnosis.

Fluorescence-Enhanced Photodynamic Assessments for Human Breast Cancer Cell Characterizations

“…According to the cellular shape and fluorescence intensity of spectra, 5-ALA-assisted MDAs (a-f) show lower fluorescence intensities than untouched 5-ALAs.Our results complement that 5-ALA-assisted MDAs lead to a higher rate of cellular death and deformation rate, which decreases the fluorescence obtained [52,52,53]. This effect is because absorbing 5-ALA by BC cells and exciting at 405 nm, making 5-ALA produce oxygen radicals, leading to MDAs cellular death [7]. The fluorescence spectra of the 480-540 nm spectral areas differ slightly from the ALA-assisted MDAs, especially at the lowest number of cells from 50,000(a) than the maximum number of cells (f).…”

“…However, there is a noticeable difference in intensity between the fluorescence data of MDAs and HFFs, especially around the 500 to 530 nm emission area with four distinct regions at around 480, 500, 510, and 530 nm that could be arising from essential coenzymes [7,8]. Based on existing literature, NADH and FAD could be the most blocking coenzymes emitting around 480 to 540 nm and highly depend on their cells' lipid metabolism enzyme changes, corresponding to fluorescence variation [6,[47][48][49].…”

“…However, they are still causing many early and late side effects due to the weakness of diagnostic techniques, especially in the early stages, leading to the pre/post-cancer period as a chronic condition. Consequently, moving toward well-being leads to proposing fluorescence-based structures for breast cancer cellular metabolism characterizations to consider the efficiency of treatments [6][7][8].…”

Quantitative Assessment of Low-Dose Photodynamic Therapy Effects on Diabetic Wound Healing Using Raman Spectroscopy

“…Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a non-invasive and non-destructive method of chemical analysis with a high molecular specificity widely used for medical diagnostics and assessment of biophysical processes [ 32 , 33 ]. RS is a vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the registration of light inelastic scattering by molecules.…”

Femtosecond optical Kerr effect in normal and grades of cancerous breast tissues as a new optical biopsy method

“…A major challenge for today's cancer patients is early detection [10]. The current optical biopsy diagnostic techniques for cancer detection are based on optical spectroscopy and microscopy [1,2,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. These techniques are based on linear and nonlinear optical processes such as absorption, fluorescence and Raman scattering [1,2,11], which lack the necessary genomic data and biomarkers for an early diagnosis.…”