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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2023; 29(1): 96-109
Published online Jan 7, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i1.96
Vibrational spectroscopy – are we close to finding a solution for early pancreatic cancer diagnosis?
Krzysztof Szymoński, Łukasz Chmura, Ewelina Lipiec, Dariusz Adamek
Krzysztof Szymoński, Łukasz Chmura, Department of Pathomorphology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow 33-332, Poland
Krzysztof Szymoński, Łukasz Chmura, Dariusz Adamek, Department of Pathomorphology, University Hospital in Cracow, Cracow 31-501, Poland
Ewelina Lipiec, M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Cracow 30-348, Poland
Dariusz Adamek, Department of Neuropathology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow 33-332, Poland
Author contributions: Szymoński K, Chmura Ł, Lipiec E, and Adamek D drafted, reviewed, and edited the manuscript; Lipiec E contributed to the funding acquisition; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Supported by The National Science Centre, Poland Under The “OPUS 19” Project, No. UMO-2020/37/B/ST4/02990.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Krzysztof Szymoński, MD, Academic Research, Doctor, Researcher, Senior Researcher, Teaching Assistant, Department of Pathomorphology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Grzegórzecka 16, Cracow 33-332, Poland. krzysztof.szymonski@uj.edu.pl
Received: July 8, 2022
Peer-review started: July 8, 2022
First decision: September 26, 2022
Revised: October 3, 2022
Accepted: October 31, 2022
Article in press: October 31, 2022
Published online: January 7, 2023
Processing time: 179 Days and 7.9 Hours
Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive and lethal neoplasm, ranking seventh in the world for cancer deaths, with an overall 5-year survival rate of below 10%. The knowledge about PC pathogenesis is rapidly expanding. New aspects of tumor biology, including its molecular and morphological heterogeneity, have been reported to explain the complicated “cross-talk” that occurs between the cancer cells and the tumor stroma or the nature of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma-associated neural remodeling. Nevertheless, currently, there are no specific and sensitive diagnosis options for PC. Vibrational spectroscopy (VS) shows a promising role in the development of early diagnosis technology. In this review, we summarize recent reports about improvements in spectroscopic methodologies, briefly explain and highlight the drawbacks of each of them, and discuss available solutions. The important aspects of spectroscopic data evaluation with multivariate analysis and a convolutional neural network methodology are depicted. We conclude by presenting a study design for systemic verification of the VS-based methods in the diagnosis of PC.

Keywords: Spectroscopic cancer diagnosis; Raman spectroscopy; Pancreatic cancer diagnosis; DNA methylation; Liquid biopsy biomarkers; Convolutional neural networks

Core Tip: Vibrational spectroscopy (VS) may become a major player in the development of early diagnosis technology for pancreatic cancer. As with every technique, VS has promising attributes as well as drawbacks. We summarize recent reports about improvements in spectroscopic methodologies, briefly explain and highlight the drawbacks of each of them, and discuss available solutions. Additionally, the important aspects of spectroscopic data evaluation with multivariate analysis and a convolutional neural network methodology are depicted.