In-vitro micro-Raman study of tissue samples for detecting cervical and ovarian cancer with 785-nm laser excitation

Abstract

We present results of in vitro micro-Raman spectroscopy of normal and cancerous cervical and ovarian tissues excited with 785 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser. Micro-Raman spectra of squamous cervical cells of both cervix and ovarian tissues show significant differences in the spectra of normal and cancerous cells. In particular, several well-defined Raman peaks in the 775-975 cm -1 region are observed in the spectra of normal cervix squamous cells but are completely missing in the spectra of invasive cervical cancer cells. In the high-frequency 2800-3100 cm -1 region it is shown that the peak area under CH stretching band is much lower than the corresponding area in the spectra of normal cells. In the case of ovarian tissues, the micro-Raman spectra show noticeable spectral differences between normal cells and ovarian serous cancer cells. In particular, we observed the accumulation of β-carotene in ovarian serous cancer cells compared to normal ovarian cells from women with no ovarian cancer. The NIR micro-Raman spectroscopy offers a potential molecular technique for detecting cervical and ovarian cancer from the respective tissues.

Raman-Enhanced Spectroscopy (RESpect) Probe for Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

“…Recent published data characterized RS fingerprints on non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cell lines which provided the foundation for the current report to test the RESpect probe on clinical NHL specimens [ 7 ]. While other research groups used RS to analyze adult cancer specimens thus suggesting its role clinically, the goal of the current study was to determine if the RESpect probe could characterize childhood tumors [ 2 , 4 , 8 , 9 ]. The rationale for focusing on this population is that the amount of tissue specimen that is often available from infants and children present challenges in diagnosis which in adults can also be challenging [ 5 ].…”