Abstract
AbstractOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and new protocols for routine and early detection are required. Raman spectroscopy is an optical based method that can provide sensitive and non‐invasive real time detailed information on the biochemical content of a sample like saliva, through the unique vibrations of its constituent molecules and this is sensitive to changes associated with disease. A comprehensive systematic review of the available scientific literature related to Raman spectroscopy of human saliva for diagnosis of OSCC was performed. The 785 nm laser line was most applied wavelength along with principal components analysis associated with linear discriminant analysis. The main salivary components possibly associated with the presence of OSCC were proteins and lipids. Measurement in the liquid physical state, and with no addition of nanoparticles for signal enhancement, seemed to best conserve the salivary integrity. However, in terms of sampling protocols, no differentiation was generally made between stimulated and non‐stimulated saliva. Raman spectroscopy of saliva holds a promising future for clinical applications such as early detection of OSCC. However, more systematic analyses are still required for a better elucidation regarding sampling procedure, storage and degradation.
Highlights
IntroductionOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), along with other head and neck tumours such as oropharygeal cancer, is the sixth most common malignant tumour worldwide
Only eight studies were deemed to be fully consistent with the proposed theme [29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36], including those that did not diagnose oral cancer (n = 3) but used salivary samples for Raman spectroscopy [32, 34, 35]
Important aspects of each study were analysed, including the year of the study, sample size, the nature of saliva collection, the physical state of the sample at the time of analysis, the laser wavelength used as source, the use of nanoparticles as enhancers for Raman analysis (SERS), the type of statistical analysis adopted, whether principal components analysis associated with linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) or support vector machines (SVM) were used, and the size of the spectral range analysed (Table 1)
Summary
OSCC, along with other head and neck tumours such as oropharygeal cancer, is the sixth most common malignant tumour worldwide. This neoplasm seems to be more prevalent in males, in a ratio of 1.5 male: female [2]. This gender difference could be explained by the more frequent exposure to predisposing factors (such as tobacco and alcohol) and those associated with occupational conditions [2, 3]
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