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One of the streams in advanced diagnostic technologies is non-invasive spectroscopic investigation or “spectral histopathology” as a novel alternative for rapid cancer diagnostics and label-free cancer specification. Fiber optics enable faster and more convenient way to study different biological tissues than standard techniques which require destructive sample preparation (e.g. histopathology, chemical analysis). Moving on this direction, we developed and applied various fiber optic probes for key spectroscopy methods such as Raman scattering, Mid IR-absorption, Diffuse NIR-reflection, and auto-fluorescence – to compare them and select the best combination for a real-time detection of malignant tissue in pre-clinical and clinical environment. All four spectroscopic methods have been tested for cancer diagnostics on biopsies of normal and cancer tissues (abdominal, oral and brain), ex-vivo samples and bioliquids. Obtained spectral data were evaluated by multivariate discrimination analysis to enable clear separation of malignant and normal tissues. Benefits of combination of several spectroscopic modalities and data fusion is presented for the better sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The best synergetic effect was observed of combining Mid IR-absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, (98% Sensitivity vs 63% or 88% for fluorescence or Mid IR-absorption correspondingly). Based on obtained results, several fiber optic probes combining several spectroscopic modalities implemented within the same single probe were designed, assembled and evaluated.
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