Roberta Schiemer

Infrared and Raman spectroscopy of blood plasma for rapid endometrial cancer detection

Abstract Background Endometrial cancer (EC) is the 6th most common cancer among women worldwide. No effective non-invasive screening methods or approved blood biomarkers for EC exist. Previous research explored Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FtIR) and Raman spectroscopies, using dried blood plasma. Fresh, ‘wet’, blood samples, that might provide faster results, have not been investigated. This study compared ATR-FtIR and Raman spectroscopies on ‘wet’ and dry blood plasma samples for EC detection. It also conducted a preliminary exploration into their diagnostic potential for EC in high-risk individuals with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods ‘Wet’ and dry blood plasma samples from participants with EC, PCOS and healthy controls were analysed using ATR-FtIR and Raman spectroscopies. Machine learning algorithms and multivariate statistical analyses assessed spectral variance across datasets to evaluate the techniques’ diagnostic performance. Results Raman analysis of ‘wet’ plasma achieved 82% accuracy in detecting EC, while ATR-FtIR spectroscopy reached 78%. When combined, diagnostic accuracy reached 86%. In comparison, dry plasma analysis with ATR-FtIR detected EC with 83% accuracy. Spectral similarities were found between EC and PCOS. Conclusions Our study suggests that ATR-FtIR and Raman spectroscopies could revolutionise early diagnosis of EC. More research is required to validate these promising findings.

Vibrational Biospectroscopy: An Alternative Approach to Endometrial Cancer Diagnosis and Screening

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the sixth most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of death among women worldwide. Early detection and treatment are associated with a favourable prognosis and reduction in mortality. Unlike other common cancers, however, screening strategies lack the required sensitivity, specificity and accuracy to be successfully implemented in clinical practice and current diagnostic approaches are invasive, costly and time consuming. Such limitations highlight the unmet need to develop diagnostic and screening alternatives for EC, which should be accurate, rapid, minimally invasive and cost-effective. Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, Mid-Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy and Raman, exploit the atomic vibrational absorption induced by interaction of light and a biological sample, to generate a unique spectral response: a “biochemical fingerprint”. These are non-destructive techniques and, combined with multivariate statistical analysis, have been shown over the last decade to provide discrimination between cancerous and healthy samples, demonstrating a promising role in both cancer screening and diagnosis. The aim of this review is to collate available evidence, in order to provide insight into the present status of the application of vibrational biospectroscopy in endometrial cancer diagnosis and screening, and to assess future prospects.