Biochemical changes between normal and BCC tissue: a FT-Raman study

The primary objective of this work was to use FT-Raman spectroscopy to detect spectral changes between benign and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) skin tissues. Those spectral changes can give us important information about the biochemical alterations between these two types of tissues. The early cancer detection stills a great challenge in clinical oncology. Recently, Raman spectroscopy has been used for skin lesion detection. FT-Raman spectroscopy is a modern analytical tool and its use for cancer diagnosis will lead to several advantages for the patient as, for example, real time and less invasive diagnosis. We have analyzed by FT-Raman eight sets of samples histopathologically diagnosed as BCC and made a comparison with five sets of samples diagnosed as benign tissue. We have found that the main spectral differences between these samples were in the shift region of 1220-1300cm-1 and 1640-1680cm-1. These vibration bands correspond to the amide III and to the amide I vibrations, respectively. Principal component analysis applied over all 13 samples could identify tissue type with 100% of sensitivity and specificity.