Detection of liver cancer tissue using silver nanoparticles-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma is difficult due to the absence of recognizable physical symptoms. In this study, Raman spectra of liver normal tissues and hepatocellular carcinoma tissues were measured by using silver nanoparticles based surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), respectively. The mean Raman spectra of two groups are roughly similar. But the peaks intensity of hepatocellular carcinoma tissues at 722 cm(-1) and 1049 cm(-1) are obviously higher than those of normal tissues. Some peaks of hepatocellular carcinoma tissues have shifted by different degree. Besides, Raman peaks at 1004 cm(-1) had disappeared in normal tissue. The result suggested that SERS spectra can feature liver normal tissue and hepatocellular carcinoma tissue. Principal component analysis (PCA) coupled with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed on the measured spectra. There were three most diagnostically significant PCs (PC3, PC9, and PC15, p<0.05) for discriminating these two groups. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity both were 84.6%. The whole analysis of each sample needs less time-consumed and cost than other traditional methods in detecting and diagnosing HCC. The preliminary result suggests that SERS spectra can be a potential medical technology to detect and diagnose HCC.