Beyond the Nucleus: Cytoplasmic Dominance in Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma Detection Using Single-Cell Raman Imaging across Multiple Devices

Abstract

Cytological diagnosis of follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is one of the main challenges in the field of endocrine oncology due to the absence of evident morphological indicators. Morphological abnormalities in the nucleus are typically key indicators of cancer cytopathology and are attributed to a range of biochemical alterations in nuclear components. Consequently, Raman spectroscopy has been widely used to detect cancer in various cytological samples, often identifying biochemical changes prior to observable morphological alterations. However, in the case of FTC, cytoplasmic features, such as carotenoids, cytochromes, and lipid droplets, have shown greater diagnostic relevance compared to nuclear features. This study leverages single-cell Raman imaging to explore the spatial origin of diagnostic signals in FTC and normal thyroid (NT) cells, assessing the contributions of the nucleus and cytoplasm independently. Our results demonstrate that Raman spectra from the cytoplasmic region can distinguish between FTC and NT cells with an accuracy of 84% under coculture conditions, consistently across two cell lines originated from two donors and maintaining robustness across multiple devices. In contrast, classification based on nuclear spectra achieved only 53% accuracy, suggesting that biochemical alterations in the cytoplasm play a more significant role in FTC detection than those in the nucleus. Our work elevates the promise of Raman-based cytopathology by providing complementary organelle-dependent information to traditional diagnostic methods and demonstrating transferability across different devices.