Current diagnostic tumor biopsies are invasive and can disrupt and spread the tumor. Liquid biopsies are inadequate for early-stage detection, resulting in lower survival rates and poorer prognoses. Raman spectroscopy can detect many cancers by identifying subtle cancer-associated metabolites in circulating biofluids. This study investigates preanalytical variables affecting Raman biofluid measurements in head and neck cancer patients, namely spatially correlated changes caused by Marangoni and capillary flow, aiming to streamline testing by reducing sample acquisition time and human intervention. This method is fully automated, providing a high-throughput assay for large-scale screening, paving the way for widely available, sensitive cancer detection.
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