Vibrational Spectroscopy for Medical Diagnosis

Cancer is the second largest cause of death (after heart disease)in North America and Europe. Statistics from many countries serveconstantly to inform us of how prevalent cancer is worldwide, eventhough one particular variation may be more predominant is onegeographical region than another. The Traumatic cost in humanlives, the dramatic cost of treatment and the need for rapidlyadvancing diagnoses and improving diagnostic methods for cancer,are clear for all to see. Current histopathological techniques forthe detection and classification of cancer often lead to ambiguousdiagnoses. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy have the potential toprovide fast, accurate complementary techniques for the detectionof many different forms of cancer. This book contains tenstate-of-the-art chapters on the application of these techniques tothe detection and classification of prostate, lymphatic, cervical,head and neck, and esophageal cancers, as well as reports on theapplication of vibrational spectroscopy to the study of individualhuman cells, and the identification of micro-organisms anderythrocytes, which should be of importance to spectroscopists andmedical professionals alike.

This book provides an up-to-date account of the practical means,applications and potential of mid-infrared and Raman spectroscopyfor the medical diagnosis of diseased tissue and cells. It will beof significant interest both to vibrational spectroscopistsinvolved in developing technique for medical diagnosis, and toclinicians, histopathologists, medical practitioners and studentsworking in the field, with whom the spectroscopists must workclosely in multi-disciplinary teams.