Real-time Raman Spectroscopy for <i>In Vivo</i> Skin Cancer Diagnosis

TLDR

Raman spectroscopy is a noninvasive optical technique that measures biomolecular vibrational modes in viable tissues. The study evaluated an integrated real‑time Raman system for in‑vivo skin cancer diagnosis. The system measured 518 lesions from 453 patients within one second each and classified them using PCA‑GDA and PLS across three tasks, achieving ROC values of 0.879, 0.823, and 0.898. The technique achieved sensitivities of 95–99% with specificities of 15–54% and demonstrated diagnostic accuracy comparable to clinical examination and other optical methods. Published in Cancer Research 72(10):2491–2500; ©2012 AACR.

Abstract

Abstract Raman spectroscopy is a noninvasive optical technique capable of measuring vibrational modes of biomolecules within viable tissues. In this study, we evaluated the application of an integrated real-time system of Raman spectroscopy for in vivo skin cancer diagnosis. Benign and malignant skin lesions (n = 518) from 453 patients were measured within 1 second each, including melanomas, basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, actinic keratoses, atypical nevi, melanocytic nevi, blue nevi, and seborrheic keratoses. Lesion classification was made using a principal component with general discriminant analysis and partial least-squares in three distinct discrimination tasks: skin cancers and precancers from benign skin lesions [receiver operating characteristic (ROC) = 0.879]; melanomas from nonmelanoma pigmented lesions (ROC = 0.823); and melanomas from seborrheic keratoses (ROC = 0.898). For sensitivities between 95% and 99%, the specificities ranged between 15% and 54%. Our findings establish that real-time Raman spectroscopy can be used to distinguish malignant from benign skin lesions with good diagnostic accuracy comparable with clinical examination and other optical-based methods. Cancer Res; 72(10); 2491–500. ©2012 AACR.