Monitoring of breast cancer patients under pre and post treated conditions using Raman spectroscopic analysis of blood plasma

Abstract

This study is aimed to monitor the therapeutic response in breast cancer patients, by using the Raman spectra of liquid blood plasma of biopsy proved 19 breast cancer patients under pre and post treatment conditions and also by comparing them with the spectra of control group, consisting of 26 normal subjects (with no significant history of illness) in the same age group. The results indicate that there exists a statistical significance in the spectral signatures between the normal and breast cancer patient’s blood plasma as well as between pre treated and post treated plasma, which may be attributed to the changes in the vibrational characteristics of some of the key biomolecules viz tyrosine, phenylalanine, methionine, tryptophan, lipids/phospholipids, amides, DNA base pairs(adenine and guanine) etc. Further, it is found that the spectral signatures of post treated plasma (after completion of the entire course of treatment) are almost matching with that of normal subjects. The results of the study indicates the possibility of using Raman Spectroscopy for diagnosis as well as for monitoring of treatment response in breast cancer patients.