Optomagnetic Imaging Spectroscopy Application in Cervical Dysplasia and Cancer Detection: Comparation of Stained and Unstained Papanicolaou Smears

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide. The fact that cervical cancer takes many years to develop indicates that mortality rates can be significantly decreased with early detection. This is why screening tests for early cervical cancer detection are so important, especially in developing countries where screening programs are not available to the same extent as in developed countries. About 84% of all cervical cancer cases in 2012 occurred in less developed countries mainly due to the lack of effective screening programs. Even if the necessary infrastructure in one country exists, the cost of screening test is usually too high. Finally, the accuracy of screening test needs to be satisfying in order to detect all the abnormal cases and treat them effectively. Papanicolaou test is still the most effective screening test for cervical cancer detection so far. However, the accuracy of Papanicolaou test is closely related to the expertise of the cytopathologist and therefore the accuracy varies producing relatively low sensitivity of Papanicolaou test (50–85%). HPV DNA test is approved as primary screening test, but so far it gives better results when it is used in conjunction with cytology. We present a method and device for detection of cervical cancer based on optomagnetic imaging spectroscopy (OMIS) and compare the results for cancer detection using stained and fresh unstained cervical cell samples. Compared to stained samples, unstained fresh sample classification by OMIS into healthy/cancerous group with Naive Bayes classifier gave higher accuracy (96% compared to 85,18%).