Quantitative laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for discriminating neoplastic tissues from non-neoplastic ones

In this paper, we present a method to distinguish neoplastic tissues from non-neoplastic ones using calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS). For this propose, plasma emission was collected from neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissues taken from the ovarian cancer mice models. Results were obtained by utilizing the characteristic plasma emission lines of different elements that have been confirmed in the investigated samples. From the temporal evolution of plasma emission, the optimum temporal-observation-windows are identified for LIBS investigation. The concentrations of the detected elements in tissues were measured by a calibration-free approach based on data process of plasma parameters at the local thermodynamic equilibrium. The neoplastic specimens provided more energetic plasma than non-neoplastic ones that resulting in higher peaks intensities, electron density and electron temperature especially in the early windows (between 0.1 mu s to 0.8 mu s). Results demonstrated higher concentrations of major and trace elements such as Mg, Fe, Ca, Na, and K in the neoplastic tissues. Finally, the results using CF-LIBS method were found to be in good agreement with that of Inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

This paper introduces a method to distinguish neoplastic tissues from non-neoplastic tissues using calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS). By analyzing the plasma emission lines of different elements, the study identified higher concentrations of major and trace elements in neoplastic tissues, especially in the early temporal observation windows. The results obtained from the CF-LIBS method were in good agreement with that of Inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).