Breast calcifications can be found in both benign and malignant lesions and the composition of these calcifications can indicate the possible disease state. Calcium oxalate dihydrate (COD) is found to be associated with benign lesions, however calcium hydroxyapatite (HAP) is found mainly in malignant tissue. As current practices such as mammography and histopathology examine the morphology of the specimen, they can not reliably distinguish between the two types of calcification, which frequently are the only features that indicate the presence of a cancerous lesion. Therefore this information can be used to make a simplistic diagnostic decision, if the biochemistry of the calcifications can be probed. Studies have been performed utilising the synchrotron mid-IR beamline at Daresbury (UK) to probe the local tissue biochemistry around breast calcifications. Raman and FTIR spectroscopic analysis of the same specimen have also been performed and spectral maps have been collected of areas in and around calcifications. Principal component analysis was used to identify the major differences in the spectra across each map. FTIR and Raman spectroscopic techniques provide complementary biochemical information and demonstrate great potential for determining biochemical changes in calcified breast tissue. Further studies will be carried out using these techniques to investigate the formation mechanisms and effects of hydroxyapatite on breast tissue and to correlate the type of hydroxyapatite present to the tumour grade.
Abstract: laboratory Raman spectroscopy was performed on 59 lymph node sections from breast cancer patients, demonstrating 91% sensitivity and 93% specificity for the correct classification of positive node spectra in a model.
Raman Spectroscopy is an optical diagnostic technique applied in this study to classify axillary lymph nodes from breast cancer patients as positive or negative for metastases. The mapping technique in this study is 81% sensitive and 97% specific for the correct classification of positive lymph nodes. Raman spectral images of lymph node sections are constructed to facilitate interpretation of tissue features.
Raman Spectroscopy is an optical diagnostic technique applied in this study to characterise breast tissue by biochemical signature spectra. In cross-validated results, Raman Spectroscopy identifies invasive breast carcinoma with 75 - 97% agreement with Histology opinion. Axillary lymph nodes from patients with breast carcinoma were mapped with confocal Raman Spectroscopy and colour-weighted principal component analysis (PCA) images were used to identify local biochemical features and correlate these with parallel section slides analysed with routine histology.
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