Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Review Article

Raman Endoscopy for Objective Diagnosis of Early Cancer in the Gastrointestinal System

Mads Sylvest Bergholt¹, Wei Zheng¹, Khek Yu Ho², Ming Teh³, Khay Guan Yeoh² and Zhiwei Huang^1*

¹Optical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

²Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore

³Department of Pathology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore

Corresponding Author:

Zhiwei Huang
Optical Bioimaging Laboratory
Department of Bioengineering Faculty of Engineering
National University of Singapore 9
Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576
Tel: +65- 6516-8856
Fax: +65- 6872-3069
E-mail: biehzw@nus.edu.sg

Received Date: June 15, 2013; Accepted Date: August 16, 2013; Published Date: August 19, 2013

Citation: Bergholt MS, Zheng W, Ho KY, Yeoh KG, Huang Z (2013) Raman Endoscopy for Objective Diagnosis of Early Cancer in the Gastrointestinal System. J Gastroint Dig Syst S1:008. doi: 10.4172/2161-069X.S1-008

Copyright: © 2013 Bergholt MS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the use of optical spectroscopic technologies for early cancer detection in the gastrointestinal system. Raman endoscopy is a unique fiber-optic spectroscopic technology for in vivo histopathological assessment of tissue based on endogenous biomolecules. Recent technical advances have enabled in vivo tissue Raman measurements in real-time during clinical endoscopic examination. The endoscopist can apply Raman endoscope to analyze the biomolecular signature of cells and tissues in vivo, thereby enabling noninvasive optical biopsies of suspicious lesions during ongoing endoscopy. In this article, we review the applications of Raman endoscopy in the gastrointestinal system and also discuss its potential function and role in gastrointestinal endoscopy and therapeutics. The results of the latest Raman clinical trials are summarized, illustrating the great potential of Raman endoscope technology for non-invasive, in vivo diagnosis and detection of pre-cancer and early cancer in the gastrointestinal system.

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