The Study Of Raman Spectrum Of Esophageal Carcimoma

Background and objectiveEsophageal carcinoma(EC) is one of the sixth most malignant tumors in the world. It ranks as the second in the carcinomatous decease. EC is characterized by the striking geographic distribution throughout the world. For example, Linzhou City in Henan Province is high morbidity region of EC. The total five-year survival rate for EC is less than 10%. EC hazards the human life and health seriously. As we all know, early foundation, early diagnosis and early therapy is the main measures for EC in improving the five-year survival rate. After the early carcinoma is treated, the five-year survival rate could be as high as 90%. At present, the diagnosis of carcinoma is mainly based on the cell pathology of tumor histological section. However, this process is not only complicated but also often influenced by the man-made factor. Therefore, the people always make efforts to explore the diagnosis method which is convenient, economical, accurate and cheap.Cell always becomes carcinoma from molecule. In the course of malignancy of cell, all of the structure, component and quantity of these molecules have manifest change. Usually these early changes do not give rise to clinical symptom or variation of medical imaging. But, the laser Raman spectrum reflects these changes. Due to this cause, the laser Raman spectrum technique might be an effective means to the early diagnosis of malignant tumor and the study of carcinomatous mechanism. The spectrum diagnosis may influence pathobiology diagnosis in this century. Some researchers do a great deal of research one after another in the field of DNA and carcinoma, such as colon carcinoma, rectum carcinoma, breast carcinoma, skin, gastrointestinal carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, lung and serum. These studies all indicate that the Raman spectrum could reveal the difference of normal tissue and carcinoma tissue in molecule. It is necessary that we the study Raman spectrum characteristic of any different tissue in order to search for the diagnosis characteristic which reflects the intrinsic micro-state of tissue.Presently, the Raman spectrum technique is one of the international researched hot spots in the field of biomedicine and clinical diagnosis.The objective of this study is to explore the difference between Raman spectrum of esophageal carcinoma tissue and one of normal tissue. This difference may provide the valuable scientific data for clinic with laser Raman spectrum technique. We argue that the Raman spectrum technique may be the new means to the early diagnosis of EC.Materials and methodsAll of the tissue specimens were obtained from the fresh esophageal carcinoma tissue(tumor center) and normal tissue(more than 5 centimeter from the tumor margin) resected by the department of thoracic surgery of the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou University. The number of each type is 64, including 34 males and 30 females. The average age is 56 year (from 42 year to 78 year). All the cases have complete clinical datas. These patients were not treated by any anti-tumor means before operation. The sampling time is from February 2006 to July 2006. All the cases were confirmed by veteran pathologist observing the routine section with HE dyeing, including 57 squamous cell carcinomas and 7 adenocarcinomas.According to EC tissue and normal tissue, the specimens were assorted into two types. Two types of tissue were measured by the laser Raman spectrum instrument respectively. The number of each type of specimen is 64. After the specimens were obtained from the surgery office, the blood debt and necrotic tissue were washed away by normal saline. Then the tissues in the specimen bags were lied in refrigerator with 15-20°C temperature. In the period of 2 hours the tissues were resected into sections with one-side blade, whose thickness is 0.5-1.0 centimeter. Then these sections were lied on the identical type of glass slides. We lied these glass slides under the microscope and observed the sections with eyepiece of 30 times. We adjusted the focus and maked it concentrate on the pathological section in order to scan it. We obtained the laser Raman spectrum of EC tissue and normal tissue and gathered spectrum repeatedly. With Origin software we dealt with the data and spectrum. At the same time, the tissues were fixed routinely and dyed with HE for pathological confirmation.ResultExperimental result indicates that most of the laser Raman spectrums of the identical type of tissue have better reappearance. The characteristic of Raman spectrum is similar on the whole. But there is major difference between distributions of the laser Raman spectrum in different type of tissue. In all the 64 Raman spectrums of esophagus carcinoma specimen 52 ones have all two obvious characteristic peaks near both wave number 1661.9cm^-1 and wave number 2936.7cm^-1, 9 ones have only one obvious characteristic peaks near wave number 2936.7cm^-1, 3 ones have nothing. However, each of the Raman spectrum of normal tissue has not a visible characteristic peak. It is only a smooth curve in this range. The curve of two types of spectrum is identical. Fig:a The laser Raman spectrum of esophagus normal tissue.b The laser Raman spectrum of esophagus carcinoma tissue. Wave length: 632.8nmConclusionThe remarkable difference between the laser Raman spectrum of EC tissue and one of normal tissue embodies the difference of constitute and structure between EC tissue and normal tissue in molecule. This indicates there is evident difference between EC tissue and normal tissue in molecule. This result presents there is vast vista in early diagnosis of EC with the laser Raman spectrum technique. To explore the laser Raman spectrum of EC tissue and normal tissue in molecule is very significant in studying carcinomatous mechanism of cell and early diagnosis and therapy of carcinoma.