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Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic (SERS) study of saliva in the early detection of oral cancer

Kho, K.W.
Malini, O.
Shen, Z.X.
Soo, K.C.
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Abstract
Worldwide, oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer for both sexes. In Singapore, the 5-year survival rate of oral cancer is about 50 %. The high mortality rate has been attributed to the difficulties in detecting the disease in an early treatable stage. Currently, the standard screening procedures for oral cancer are histopathology examination of biopsied tissues and exfoliative cytological assessment. These techniques, unfortunately, are low in sensitivity. In this study, we exploit the high amplification factor of SERS to investigate on the possibility of utilising molecular vibrational information from saliva samples to detect oral cancer early. All raw saliva samples were centrifuged at 13,000 krpm for 5 minutes to remove unwanted particles prior to SERS measurements. The purified saliva samples were then applied directly on gold particle films, followed by excitation with a 633 nm HeNe laser. SERS spectrum can be obtained in less than 2 minutes for each sample. We have studied the saliva spectra acquired from 5 normal individuals and 5 patients with oral cancer. In addition, we also observe new peaks at 1097 cm -1 and 1627 cm -1 in some of the abnormal samples. These peaks are not present in the spectra acquired from the normal samples. Preliminary measurements will be presented. This study may lead to the development of a sensitive and portable diagnostics system for oral cancer.
Keywords
Convective assembly, Gold nano-particles, Inter-particle coupling, Saliva, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
Source Title
Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Publisher
Series/Report No.
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
PHYSICS
dept
Rights
Date
2005
DOI
10.1117/12.590142
Type
Conference Paper
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