spectroscopy – Oral Cancer News

Research applies Raman spectroscopy to oral cancer diagnostics

Source: www.photonics.com Author: staff According to research from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Raman spectroscopy may provide early detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma. One of the most common cancers, oral squamous cell carcinoma is often undetected until a late stage. Currently, clinically apparent, conspicuous mucosal lesions of the oral cavity require initial conservative treatment and monitoring. If they persist, surgical biopsy is used to make a diagnosis. “Our study shows the potential of Raman spectroscopy for revealing whether a lesion is cancerous in real time,” said research team leader Levi Matthies. “Although it won’t replace biopsies any time soon, the technique could help reduce the lapse of valuable time as well as the number of invasive procedures.” The researchers used a variation of Raman spectroscopy known as SERDS (shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy), which is capable of analyzing tissues that exhibit strong background fluorescence. To test the method, they designed a compact and portable Raman sensor consisting of a tunable diode laser, a fiber-coupled spectrometer, and a Raman probe. The scientists used the device to analyze unlabeled biopsy samples from 37 patients at 180 measurement locations. To classify the raw data, the team trained and tested computer models, ultimately distinguishing oral squamous cell carcinoma from nonmalignant lesions with an accuracy of over 88%, and from healthy tissue with an accuracy of over 89%. The majority of spectral features used to distinguish malignant and nonmalignant lesions came from protein and nucleic acid molecules. “Our results show that this approach is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-01-15T15:51:27-07:00January, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

Detecting cancer’s biochemical ‘fingerprint’ for early diagnosis

Source: www.siliconrepublic.com Author: Claire O'Connell Detecting cancer in its early stages could help to make treatment more effective. Claire O’Connell found out from Dr Fiona Lyng about Cervassist, an emerging technology that uses spectroscopy to analyse tissue samples and spot when cells are showing signs of abnormality. So far the technology has been focusing on assessing cervical smear samples, which are routinely collected as part of screening programmes for cervical cancer in many countries. Cervical cancer is the one of the most common female cancers in Europe, and women are encouraged to be screened every few years. Cells are removed from the neck of the womb, and they are examined by eye under a microscope. If there are abnormal or potentially cancerous cells in the sample, the person can be monitored or treated as appropriate. Cervassist, which is being developed at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), could offer another view of those cells on the microscope slide. By shining laser light on the samples and collecting some of the scattered radiation, the technology can automatically analyse the biochemical content of the cells, explains Lyng, who is manager of the DIT Centre for Radiation and Environmental Science. "We use Raman spectroscopy to analyse the cervical samples – it's a vibrational spectroscopic technique that gives a biochemical fingerprint of a sample," she says. "If you shine laser light on a sample, light is scattered back and we collect the inelastic scatter, which contains information about the biochemical components in the sample, the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2013-02-11T22:31:03-07:00February, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Detection of squamous cell carcinoma and corresponding biomarkers using optical spectroscopy

Source: oto.sagepub.com Author: H. Wolfgang Beumer, MD et al. Objectives: Investigate the use of optical reflectance spectroscopy to differentiate malignant and nonmalignant tissues in head and neck lesions and characterize corresponding oxygen tissue biomarkers that are associated with pathologic diagnosis. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Tertiary Veterans Administration Medical Center. Subjects and Methods: All patients undergoing panendoscopy with biopsy for suspected head and neck cancer were eligible. Prior to taking tissue samples, the optical probe was placed at 3 locations to collect diffuse reflectance data. These locations were labeled “tumor,” “immediately adjacent,” and “distant normal tissue.” Biopsies were taken of each of these respective sites. The diffuse reflectance spectra were analyzed, and biomarker-specific absorption data were extracted using an inverse Monte Carlo algorithm for malignant and nonmalignant tissues. Histopathological analysis was performed and used as the gold standard to analyze the optical biomarker data. Results: Twenty-one patients with mucosal squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck were identified and selected to participate in the study. Statistically significant differences in oxygen saturation (P = .001) and oxygenated hemoglobin (P = .019) were identified between malignant and nonmalignant tissues. Conclusion: This study established proof of principle that optical spectroscopy can be used in the head and neck areas to detect malignant tissue. Furthermore, tissue biomarkers were correlated with a diagnosis of malignancy. Authors: 1. H. Wolfgang Beumer, MD1 2. Karthik Vishwanath, PhD2 3. Liana Puscas, MD1,3 4. Hamid R. Afshari, DDS5 5. Nimmi Ramanujam, PhD2 6. Walter T. Lee, MD1,3 Authors' [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-29T11:07:44-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

Naturally fluorescent molecules may serve as cancer biomarker

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com Author: Amitabh Avasthi Excess amounts of a naturally fluorescent molecule found in all living cells could serve as a natural biomarker for cancer, according to bioengineers. NADH, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a key coenzyme -- a non-protein molecule necessary for the functioning of an enzyme -- found mostly in the inner membrane of a cell's power plant, or mitochondria. It fuels a series of biochemical reactions that involve various enzymes to produce ATP, the major energy source in cells. In the event of disease or a metabolic disorder, these enzymes and their related reactions can become disabled, causing a buildup of unused NADH. "Dysfunctional enzymes in the mitochondria are known to be associated with serious health problems such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases," said Ahmed Heikal, associate professor of bioengineering, Penn State. "By detecting the level of NADH and its distribution inside living cells, we should be able to monitor the mitochondrial activity and thus the integrity of any given cell, without adding potentially toxic dyes or actually destroying the cell." According to Heikal, one of the main challenges in cancer diagnosis is the ability to differentiate cancer cells from normal ones at the early stages of tumor progression. To tease apart the critical difference between normal and cancerous cells, the researchers used the fluorescence of natural NADH. Using a combination of state-of-the-art spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, the researchers were able to convert such fluorescence into an accurate measure of NADH concentration in live cells. Heikal and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-04-12T11:11:32-07:00April, 2009|Oral Cancer News|