Rapid detection of oral cancer using Ag–TiO₂ nanostructured surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic substrates

Abstract

, a detection limit ∼1 nM and a relative standard deviation of the Raman peak maximum of ∼13% for the nano-leafy structure. This substrate was used to analyze tissue sections of 8 oral cancer patients (squamous cell carcinoma of tongue) comprising a total of 24 normal and 32 tumor tissue sections and the recorded spectra were analyzed by principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. The tissue spectra were correctly classified into tumor and normal groups, with a diagnostic sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 95.83% and the average processing time per patient of 15-20 min. This indicates the potential translation of the SERS method for the rapid and accurate detection of cancer.