An Investigation into FTIR Spectroscopy as a Biodiagnostic Tool for Cervical Cancer

Each year in Australia alone, 2500 women develop full invasive cervical carcinoma, and 3S0 of these die of the disease [1]. The current screening method is the Papanicolaou smear test or “Pap smear”, which although widely accepted as a practical method gives up to 20% false negative results [2]. Recently Holmes and Mountford [3] have investigated the potential of NMR spectroscopy in this field, while Wong and Rigas [4] have applied infrared spectroscopy to the analysis of exfoliated cervical cells and shown that it is a promising tool for screening. The aim of the present ongoing study is to assess the usefulness of FTIR as a tool for discriminating between normal cervical cells, cells with differing degrees of dysplasia, and cells that are malignant.

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