Differentiation of digestive system cancers by using serum protein-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

The aim of this study is to develop a more robust surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy method for the simultaneous differentiation of two or more different types of cancer. For this, the periodical reversal of current directions is imposed on electrophoresis for the fast purification of serum proteins, and the serum proteins were then mixed with silver nanoparticles for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy spectral measurement. The Raman spectra of serum proteins from healthy subjects (n=85) and three types of digestive system cancer - colorectal cancer (n=109), gastric cancer (n=133), and liver cancer (n=38) - were measured for analyses. Principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis yield diagnostic sensitivities of 94.5, 97.0, and 89.1% and specificities of 98.1, 92.7, and 99.2% in the differentiation of colorectal, gastric, and liver cancers, respectively. This work marks a promising step toward the potential applications of Raman spectroscopic blood analysis in multi-type cancer screening. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.