AIM: The present study is focused to investigate the role of Raman spectroscopy (RM) for cancer detection.
METHODS: In this review, we explored a number of scientific databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Google Scholar for research studies on Raman spectroscopy for diagnosing cancer. We reported key outcomes of research studies conducted involving Raman spectroscopy for diagnosis of cancer and highlighting the potential of novel Raman spectroscopy for diagnosing cancer in our review.
RESULTS: Based on the available evidence it can be strongly concluded that Raman spectroscopy provide significant information for diagnosing cancer. Numerous comprehensive studies involving living cells in vitro, in-vivo animal models and ex-vivo human tissues pre-clinical Raman experiments are conducted on biological specimens for almost every type of cancer for diagnosing cancer demonstrating the potential for clinical use of Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, the in-vivo Raman handheld probes are developed and experimentally used for real time detection of human breast and brain tumors with significant sensitivity and specificity. However, it will be important and challenging to explore relevant Raman biomarkers for other types of cancer as well, to distinguish cancer.
CONCLUSION: Raman spectroscopy is an effective method and valuable tool in the field of cancer diagnostics. The Raman spectroscopy deserves a place for future in clinics for rapid cancer diagnostics.
