Spectral technique for monitoring cervical cancer treatment following radiotherapy

Abstract

Background: The pre- and post-treatment evaluation of cervical cancer is usually done by clinical examination and radiological imaging depending on the facility available. The biochemistry of tumor tissues gets dramatically altered after chemoradiation, and such changes could be monitored by the spectral analysis of blood and urine for biochemical component. Aim: This study aims to evaluate the pre- and post-treatment biochemical changes through spectral analysis of blood and urine samples. Materials and Methods: Sixty-nine diagnosed cases of cervical carcinoma were taken for the study. The pre- and post-treatment evaluation of disease was done by clinical examination and radiological imaging. The biochemical component of blood and urine samples of all patients was analyzed spectroscopically before and after radiotherapy by exciting at 400 nm and capturing the emission spectrum over the range of 425 nm–675 nm. Results: The majority of cervical carcinoma patients were clinical International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Stage IIIB followed by Stage IIB and Stage IB consisting of 49.28%, 33.33%, and 8.70% of cases, respectively. Rest of 8.70% of patients were postoperative. The initial results were found to be encouraging with good correlation (up to 66.67%) between spectral biomarker measurement, and the clinical and abdominal ultrasound scan monitoring. Conclusion: This proof of concept study with a limited number of patients, there was good clinical correlation and supplementary information for monitoring the patients. Spectral biomarker analysis could become a reliable, inexpensive tool complementing or supplementing expensive techniques like computed tomography scan.