Virtual spectral histopathology of colon cancer - biomedical applications of Raman spectroscopy and imaging

Abstract

Colon cancer is one of the most commonly detected pathology and is the third worldwide cause of death in the US and Europe and ranks second with regard to the incidence of malignant tumors in population. Raman spectroscopy and imaging can be used for colon cancer detection and bioanalytical characterization of noncancerous and pathologically changed tissues. These studies included Raman spectroscopy measurement of not fixed and not stained tissues samples. Presented study included patients from Poland, who were ≥18 years of age and underwent colon cancer surgery. Outcomes were measured using confocal Raman microscope, spectroscopy results were compared with traditional histopathology analysis outcomes. DNA, lipids, proteins and carotenoids can be treated as biomarkers of cancerogenesis. Ratios: 751/1156 (DNA/Carotenoids), 1228/1332 (β-sheet/α-helix proteins conformation), 1586/1004 (Phosphorylated proteins/Proteins), 2854/2935 (Lipids/Proteins) can be used to differentiate noncancerous and cancerous human sigmoid colon mucosa based on Raman spectroscopy and imaging. We have proved that Raman spectroscopy and imaging are a powerful technique to distinguish between noncancerous and cancerous human sigmoid colon mucosa and to characterize biochemical composition of multilayer sigmoid colon tissues samples.