Detecting and Monitoring of Cancer at the Cellular Level - Vibrational Spectroscopy for Tissue Analysis - page 183

human tissue samples. Ultimately, the work will allow precise monitoring
of patients before starting the actual course of treatment. The technique is
also capable of analysing the effects of chemotherapeutic medications on
cancer cell lines, as well as picking spectral differences between cell lines of
different organs.
Taking all of the information presented in the statistical analysis section,
the following conclusions are offered:
• Possibility of classiication of R and S testicular cancer cell lines
through Raman spectroscopy
• Reproducibility of the technique
• Potential for recognising the chemical differences between the two
types
• Effective quantitative approach
• Good classiication performance with PLS-DA
• The ingerprint region (300-1830 cm −1 ) is more important for clas-
sification, but the C-H stretch region (2650-3130 cm −1 ) is also useful
and improves results in some cases.
• It is possible to choose single peaks or areas to create calibration
models. However, as PLS does this automatically and includes a
wide spectral range, it is better to use this facility.
The spectral database developed in this study suggests enormous poten-
tial to offer preoperative diagnosis of sensitive and resistant samples, in
order to offer patients better management resulting in better outcomes.
However, diagnosing cell lines is only a first step, and to be clinically useful,
the method must be applicable to tissue samples. It may also be possible in
the future to relate the chemical differences found in this study to sensitiv-
ity of tissues to cisplatin and assess the extent of sensitivity of the tissues
preoperatively and noninvasively in vivo by Raman spectroscopy to guide
treatment decisions.
As recently reported on the BBC by science reporter Katia Moskvitch
(“Painless Laser Device Could Spot Early Signs of Disease”) [27]: “The
method, called Raman spectroscopy, could help spot the early signs of breast
cancer, tooth decay and osteoporosis. Scientists believe that the technology
would make the diagnosis of illnesses faster, cheaper and more accurate.”
There have been a number of research groups working on the chemical
structural characterisation of biological molecules to detect and monitor dis-
ease processes. The authors were amongst the first to report infrared and
Raman spectroscopy of natural bones, including, human, bovine, and sheep
bone [28-31], where it was predicted that spectroscopic means would be
the way forward for routine diagnosis and to monitor the chemical struc-
tural properties of biological tissue, which changes with aging and disease
processes.