Raman spectroscopy as a tool for detection of lung cancer and verification of vaccination effect – Correlation with biochemical data

Abstract

Pneumonia and other comorbidities can reduce the efficacy of chemotherapy and other treatment modalities in lung cancer. The risk of these diseases can be lower after vaccination. Therefore, in this study, an investigation of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) on the immune system of lung cancer patients (study group) and individuals without cancer symptoms (control group) was performed. Raman spectroscopy was used to measure and analyze biochemical changes in serum spectra collected from 116 lung cancer patients and 19 healthy individuals as a control samples before and after PCV13 vaccine. Obtained results showed that in study groups, both the post-vaccination and control groups exhibited increased IgG and IgG2 levels. Raman spectra revealed that vaccination caused a shift of peaks towards higher Raman shifts in both groups, however, this shift was pronounced in the study group. Using Raman spectroscopy, it was possible to differentiate not only patients with and without lung cancer, but also patients before and after vaccination. The area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC-ROC) ranged from 0.794 when comparing study and control groups post-vaccination to 0.575 when comparing control patients pre- and post-vaccination. Correlations between biochemical parameters (IgG, IgG2, monocytes, and C-reactive protein (CRP)) and Raman data differed in the study group, while in the control one correlation remained consistent. This study shows the potential of Raman spectroscopy for detecting lung cancer from serum as well as for verifying the impact of the PCV13 vaccine on the chemical compositions of serum and the immune system.