Label-free determination of lipid composition and secondary protein structure of human salivary noncancerous and cancerous tissues by Raman microspectroscopy

The applications of optical spectroscopic methods in cancer detection open new possibilities in oncological diagnostics. Raman spectroscopy and Raman imaging represent noninvasive, label-free, and rapidly developing tools in cancer diagnosis. In the study described in this paper Raman microspectroscopy has been employed to examine noncancerous and cancerous human salivary gland tissues of the same patient. The most significant differences between noncancerous and cancerous tissues were found in regions typical for the vibrations of lipids and proteins. The detailed analysis of secondary structures of proteins contained in the cancerous and the noncancerous tissues is also presented.