Raman spectroscopy of breast tissues

Breast cancer is one of the leading female cancers. The major drawback of the gold standard of screening, mammography, is the high rate of false reports, aside from the risk from repeated exposure to harmful ionizing radiations. Histopathology, the gold standard of diagnosis, is time consuming and often prone to subjective interpretations. Molecular level diagnosis 'omics' is becoming increasingly popular; among these is metabolomics, diagnosis based on 'metabolic fingerprinting'. In the present article we review a Raman spectroscopic approach to metabolic fingerprinting in breast cancer detection. This review opens with a brief background on anatomical and etiological aspects of breast cancers. We present an overview of conventional detection approaches in breast cancer screening and diagnosis methods, followed by a concise note on the basics of optical spectroscopy and its applications in the screening/diagnosis of breast malignancy. We present the recent developments in Raman spectroscopic diagnosis of breast cancers and also share our experience in Raman spectroscopic classification of normal, benign and malignant breast tissues. Perspectives and current status of Raman spectroscopic screening/diagnosis of breast cancers are also discussed.