Shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy for improving in vivo detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

A strong fluorescence background is one of the common interference factors of Raman spectroscopic analysis in biological tissue. This study developed an endoscopic shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) system for real-time in vivo detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) for the first time. Owing to the use of the SERDS method, the high-quality Raman signals of nasopharyngeal tissue could be well extracted and characterized from the complex raw spectra by removing the fluorescence interference signals. Significant spectral differences relating to proteins, phospholipids, glucose, and DNA were found between 42 NPC and 42 normal tissue sites. Using linear discriminant analysis, the diagnostic accuracy of SERDS for NPC detection was 100%, which was much higher than that of raw Raman spectroscopy (75.0%), showing the great potential of SERDS for improving the accurate in vivo detection of NPC. [Display omitted] •An endoscopic shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy was developed for in vivo detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.•Using SERDS method, the high-quality tissue Raman signals could be extracted by removing the fluorescence interference signals.•The diagnostic accuracy of SERDS for NPC detection was 100%, which was much higher than that of raw Raman spectroscopy (75.0 %).