New technology shows early biochemical changes in tumors

Researchers at the University of Arkansas have demonstrated for the first time a non-invasive optical technique for determining complex biochemical changes in cancers treated with immunotherapy

Narasimhan Rajaram, associate professor of biomedical engineering, said: "We have demonstrated that spectroscopy can provide sensitive detection of early changes in tumor biomolecular composition

Immune checkpoints act as a brake on the immune system to ensure that the body's immune response is proportional to the level of threat detected

This study, published in the journal Cancer Research of the American Association for Cancer Research, describes the use of Raman spectroscopy to determine the molecular composition of colon cancer tumors.

Raman spectroscopy uses optical fibers to directly irradiate near-infrared lasers to biological tissues

In this study, researchers used machine learning methods to train hundreds of Raman data sets obtained from colon cancer tumors treated with different immunotherapy drugs

Raman technology is sensitive to early changes in tumor biomolecular composition and can distinguish the response of different treatments to tumors

Unlike other forms of cancer treatment, immunotherapy does not immediately lead to a predictable reduction in tumor size, and there is currently no accurate method to determine a patient's response to treatment

DOI

0008-5472.

Article title

Raman spectroscopy and machine learning reveals early tumor microenvironmental changes induced by immunotherapy