Raman spectroscopy for guidance of vulvar cancer surgery: a pilot study

For vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC), the mainstay of treatment is surgical removal with tumour-free margins. Surgeons still operate without objective tools that provide margin-status. This study assesses Raman spectroscopy potentiality for distinguishing ex-vivo VSCC from healthy tissue in 11 patients. Grid-based Raman maps were obtained from processed spectra. Water content and C-H band ratio (2,910-2,966 cm^-1 / 2810-2890 cm^-1) were calculated per spectrum and used as linear discriminant parameters. Healthy tissue was differentiated from VSCC with 0.90 discriminative power, 0.79 sensitivity and 0.86 specificity.This is an important step towards the development of objective tools for VSCC surgical guidance.