Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy and Imaging of Breast Cancer - Vibrational Spectroscopy for Tissue Analysis - page 111

5
Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy
and Imagin g of Breast Cancer
Introduction
The incidence of breast cancer is increasing worldwide, with the highest
rates reported in affluent Western societies (the risk ratio is approximately
1 in 8 to 1 in 12 affluent to nonaffluent Western societies). According to
the latest data of Cancer Research, United Kingdom, it accounts for 12,471
deaths per year in the UK, the lifetime incidence is 9%, and the average
incidence is 65 per 100,000 persons per year. Breast cancer remains the lead-
ing cause of cancer death in adult women under 54 years of age and the
second most common cause after age 54. Among women of all ages, breast
cancer is second only to lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths
in women [1-7].
Several techniques are currently used for breast cancer diagnosis. These
techniques include mammography, ultrasound, fine-needle aspiration cytol-
ogy (FNAC) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, most of these
methods have considerable shortcomings and inaccuracies [8-14]. In mam-
mography, for instance, 10-14% of clinically diagnosable cancers will not be
detected [14] and ultrasound is not as sensitive or specific as mammography.
As a result, in a considerable majority of cases, different biopsy methods
(i.e., core and localization biopsy) must be applied. MRI is sensitive for the
visualisation of both ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive ductal car-
cinoma (IDC) and can detect these only when they are clinically and mam-
mographically occult [15].
In this chapter, Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of
the normal breast tissue were compared with malignant tissue. Different
grades of DCIS and IDC were analysed to evaluate precisely how spectros-
copy could differentiate between these grades and any biochemical changes
taking place.
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