Subsecond lung cancer detection within a heterogeneous background of normal and benign tissue using single-point...

Lung cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer overall and the deadliest cancer in North America. Early diagnosis through current bronchoscopy techniques is limited by poor diagnostic yield and low specificity, especially for lesions located in peripheral pulmonary locations. Even with the emergence of robotic-assisted platforms, bronchoscopy diagnostic yields remain below 80%.

The aim of this study was to determine whether in situ single-point fingerprint (800 to $$) Raman spectroscopy coupled with machine learning could detect lung cancer within an otherwise heterogenous background composed of normal tissue and tissue associated with benign conditions, including emphysema and bronchiolitis.

A Raman spectroscopy probe was used to measure the spectral fingerprint of normal, benign, and cancer lung tissue in 10 patients. Each interrogated specimen was characterized by histology to determine cancer type, i.e., small cell carcinoma or non-small cell carcinoma (adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma). Biomolecular information was extracted from the fingerprint spectra to identify biomolecular features that can be used for cancer detection.

Supervised machine learning models were trained using leave-one-patient-out cross-validation, showing lung cancer could be detected with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 80%.

This proof of concept demonstrates fingerprint Raman spectroscopy is a promising tool for the detection of lung cancer during diagnostic procedures and can capture biomolecular changes associated with the presence of cancer among a complex heterogeneous background within less than 1 s.