Recent advances in the development of Raman spectroscopy for deep non-invasive medical diagnosis

Raman spectroscopy has recently undergone major advances in the area of deep non-invasive characterisation of biological tissues. The progress stems from the development of spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) and renaissance of transmission Raman spectroscopy permitting the assessment of diffusely scattering samples at depths several orders of magnitude deeper than possible with conventional Raman spectroscopy. Examples of emerging applications include non-invasive diagnosis of bone disease, cancer and monitoring of glucose levels. This article reviews this fast moving field focusing on recent developments within the medical area.