Future Potential Clinical Applications of Spectroscopic Techniques in Human Diseases - Vibrational Spectroscopy for Tissue Analysis - page 301

Detection of Tissue Injury
Similar to proton MR spectroscopy, vibrational spectroscopy may also
be promising as a tool for the detection of radiation injury before it
becomes evident by MR imaging. Radiation necrosis may be indistin-
guishable from residual and recurrent tumours by CT, MRI, SPECT
single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and even PET-CT
imaging [19,24]. Tissue necrosis due to radiation is likely to result in cellu-
lar breakdown, probably consisting of free fatty acids, lactate, and amino
acids.
Detection of Therapeutic Drug Levels
Due to precise determination of chemical structural changes by spectros-
copy, it should be possible to detect the concentration of various drugs in
blood or serum. This could, in turn, help with studies of drug pharmacoki-
netics and pharmacodynamics.
In summary, we believe that vibrational spectroscopy has immense poten-
tial to help at various stages of different disease processes, in particular,
with cancer diagnosis, staging, and treatment design. This will result in
improved patient care pathways. A wealth of data now exists, describing
chemical structural changes associated with various human disease condi-
tions, including cancers. There still is the unmet need for creation of a single
comprehensive and standardised database of these chemical change spectra
for future applications and reference.
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