Prostate cancer detection ex vivo combining Raman spectroscopy and tactile resonance technology

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men in the western world. The most prevalent curative treatment is radical prostatectomy. However, prostate surgery can give unwanted side effects and there is a need for an instrument that can provide decision support to the surgeon during surgery on the presence of cancer cells in the surgical margin. A dual-modality probe, combining Raman spectroscopy and tactile resonance technology, has been used for detecting cancer in fresh human prostate tissue. The tactile resonance modality measures the tissue stiffness and Raman spectroscopy depicts the molecular content in tissue, both related to cancer. After ethical approval, the study investigated the potential of the dual-modality probe by testing its ability to differentiate between normal and cancerous prostate tissue ex vivo. It also investigated the minimal amount of measurement points needed to securely detect cancer on the surface of prostate tissue. Measurements on three prostate tissue slices show that the tactile resonance modality measuring stiffness was able to detect differences between normal and cancerous tissue on a significant level of 90%, but the sample size was too low to draw any firm conclusions. It was also suggested from the study results that the high wavenumber region in the Raman spectrum can give valuable information about cancer in prostate tissue. A number of 24 measurement points were enough for detecting cancer in prostate slices in this study. It can be suggested from this study that combining these two sensor modalities is promising for accurate detection of prostate cancer that is needed during prostate surgery, but more measurements including more prostates must be performed before the full value of the study result can be established.