Using high frequency Raman spectra for colonic neoplasia detection

Raman systems have tremendous potential as adjunct devices for endoscopes to improve the identification of early colon cancers. However, the traditional low frequency (LF) measurement range has several obstacles that make it challenging to develop a routine clinical tool. An alternative is to use high frequency (HF) range. To test this idea Raman spectra were obtained in both the LF and HF ranges from the same colon lesions. Multivariate analyses predicted the pathology with high sensitivity and specificity for both the LF and HF data sets. This suggests that Raman systems that measure HF spectra, and are simpler to adopt into the clinic, could be used in vivo to improve the identification of neoplastic lesions. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America