Raman spectroscopy for rapid analysis of pathology of the breast.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A novel deep Raman spectroscopy platform for ex vivo analysis of breast tissue measuring disease specific compositional changes.
IRAS ID
210732
Contact name
Nicholas Stone
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Recently, we have pioneered a portfolio of revolutionary optical technologies in the area of laser spectroscopy, namely Raman spectroscopy, for non-invasive molecular probing of biological tissue. The developments have the potential of making a step-change in many fields of medicine including cancer diagnosis.
There is an urgent clinical need for early objective diagnosis and prediction of likely treatment outcomes for many types of subsurface cancers. This is not addressed by existing technologies. There are numerous steps along the cancer clinical pathway where real-time, in vivo, molecular specific disease analysis would have a major impact. This would significantly reduce needle biopsy, in around 80% of those recalled following mammographic screening this step is unnecessarily – ie leading to the diagnosis of benign lesions. Our novel approach would allow for more accurate and immediate diagnosis in conjunction with mammography at first presentation by improving screening or surveillance techniques, leading to earlier diagnosis and better treatment outcomes. Secondly it would allow surgical margin assessment and treatment monitoring in real-time and thirdly identification of metastatic invasion in the lymphatic system during routine surgery. There are numerous other areas where a rapid molecular analysis of a tissue sample in the clinic or theatre environment would allow improved clinical decision-making, for example when pre- operatively staging the disease and particularly when non-invasively monitoring tumour response during chemo/radiotherapy. Clearly these approaches would be beneficial to the patient by reducing cancer recurrence rates; but also by minimising the numbers of invasive procedures required, thus reducing costs and patient anxiety.
These technologies harness the power of light to objectively probe disease specific changes in real-time. Raman spectroscopy, which is a form of vibrational spectroscopy, utilises low power laser light to probe the molecular constituents of fluids, cells and tissues, measuring the way light recovered from the sample has changed. Rapid measurements leading to an immediate diagnosis can be achieved next to the patient and in the patient using miniaturised probes or just by light contact.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0366
Date of REC Opinion
16 May 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion