Raman Spectroscopy: A Tool for Molecular Fingerprinting of Brain Cancer

Brain cancer is one of those few cancers with very highmortalityand low five-year survival rate. First and foremost reason for thewoes is the difficulty in diagnosing and monitoring the progressionof brain tumors both benign and malignant, noninvasively and in realtime. This raises a need in this hour for a tool to diagnose the tumorsin the earliest possible time frame. On the other hand, Raman spectroscopywhich is well-known for its ability to precisely represent the molecularmarkers available in any sample given, including biological ones,with great sensitivity and specificity. This has led to a number ofstudies where Raman spectroscopy has been used in brain tumors invarious ways. This review article highlights the fundamentals of Ramanspectroscopy and its types including conventional Raman, SERS, SORS,SRS, CARS, etc. are used in brain tumors for diagnostics, monitoring,and even theragnostics, collating all the major works in the area.Also, the review explores how Raman spectroscopy can be even moreeffectively used in theragnostics and the clinical level which wouldmake them a one-stop solution for all brain cancer needs in the future.