Research

Potential for Raman spectroscopy to provide cancer screening using a peripheral blood sample

Andrew T Harris¹ , Anxhela Lungari¹ , Christopher J Needham² , Stephen L Smith³ , Michael A Lones³ , Sheila E Fisher^4,5 , Xuebin B Yang¹ , Nicola Cooper⁶ , Jennifer Kirkham¹ , D Alastair Smith⁷ , Dominic P Martin-Hirsch⁸ and Alec S High⁹

¹  Oral Biology, Leeds Dental Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

²  School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

³  Department of Electronics, University of York, York, UK

⁴  Section of Experimental Therapeutics, Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

⁵  School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

⁶  Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust and University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

⁷  AVACTA group plc, York Biocentre, York Science Park, York, UK

⁸  Department of ENT/Head and Neck Surgery, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust, Yorkshire, UK

⁹  Department of Pathology, Leeds Dental Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

author email corresponding author email

Head & Neck Oncology 2009, 1:34doi:10.1186/1758-3284-1-34

Published:	17 September 2009

Abstract

Cancer poses a massive health burden with incidence rates expected to double globally over the next decade. In the United Kingdom screening programmes exists for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer. The ability to screen individuals for solid malignant tumours using only a peripheral blood sample would revolutionise cancer services and permit early diagnosis and intervention. Raman spectroscopy interrogates native biochemistry through the interaction of light with matter, producing a high definition biochemical 'fingerprint' of the target material. This paper explores the possibility of using Raman spectroscopy to discriminate between cancer and non-cancer patients through a peripheral blood sample. Forty blood samples were obtained from patients with Head and Neck cancer and patients with respiratory illnesses to act as a positive control. Raman spectroscopy was carried out on all samples with the resulting spectra being used to build a classifier in order to distinguish between the cancer and respiratory patients' spectra; firstly using principal component analysis (PCA)/linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and secondly with a genetic evolutionary algorithm. The PCA/LDA classifier gave a 65% sensitivity and specificity for discrimination between the cancer and respiratory groups. A sensitivity score of 75% with a specificity of 75% was achieved with a 'trained' evolutionary algorithm. In conclusion this preliminary study has demonstrated the feasibility of using Raman spectroscopy in cancer screening and diagnostics of solid tumours through a peripheral blood sample. Further work needs to be carried out for this technique to be implemented in the clinical setting.