Biophotonics diagnostics of oral cancer using Raman spectroscopy

Oral cancer (OC) is one of the most common oral malignancies. Despite significant advances in medical devices, the five-year survival rate of OC remains low. Current technologies based on tissue pathology are insufficient to diagnose OC at early stages. Molecular sensitive technique such as optical spectroscopy, on the other hand, has the potential for early-stage diagnostics and non-invasive tissue interrogation. Raman spectroscopy (RS), for instance, is a powerful vibrational spectroscopy that allows highly sensitive detection of low concentration analytes, as well as molecular fingerprints of bio samples to be studied non-invasively. Additionally, higher spatial resolution, narrow peaks, better sensitivity and minimal sample preparation makes RS a potential tool for analysing oral cancer in a clinical setting. In this study, we will validate the potential of Raman spectroscopy (RS) and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for oral cancer diagnostics. Patients having biopsy and histopathological examination were involved in this study. Ex vivo measurements were performed on saliva specimen using SERS while in-vivo analysis was performed by RS. Integration of in vivo tissue and ex vivo sample analysis could potentially improve early-stage OC detection, and hence the overall survival rate of OC.