Application value of Raman spectroscopy in the differential diagnosis of primary liver cancer and liver cirrhosis

SUN Rui; XI Yue; SHEN Yangyang; LI Sheng

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2025.01.008

Abstract：Objective To investigate the efficacy of Raman spectroscopy in the identification of primary liver cancer and liver cirrhosis,and to provide a novel approach for determining the safe surgical margin distance in liver cancer surger-ies.Methods Thirty samples of liver cancer tissues and 30 cases of para-cancerous cirrhotic tissues were collected from patients with primary liver cancer complicated by liver cirrhosis.Raman spectroscopy analysis was performed using a micro-scopic confocal Raman spectrometer.The peak intensities of the Raman spectra at various positions in primary liver cancer tissues were compared with those in cirrhotic tissues,and a receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was drawn to eval-uate the application value of Raman spectroscopy in distinguishing primary liver cancer and cirrhotic tissues.Results Ra-man spectrum analysis demonstrated that the intensity of Raman peaks in primary liver cancer tissues was significantly low-er than that in cirrhosis tissues at the Raman peaks of 1,004,1,155,and 1,510 cm-1.In contrast,at the Raman peak of 1,642 cm-1,the peak intensity for primary liver cancer tissues surpassed that of cirrhosis tissues(all P<0.05).Notably,significant characteristic peaks specific to primary liver cancer tissues were identified near the Raman peaks at 1,377 and 1,586 cm-1,while these peaks were not present in cirrhosis tissues.The results of ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the ROC curve of Raman spectroscopy in differentiating primary liver cancer and cirrhosis was equal to 1 at the peaks of 1,004,1,155,1,510,and 1,642 cm-1.The corresponding optimal critical values were 248.5,531.0,773.5,and 249.5 counts,respectively.Both the sensitivity and specificity were 100％(all P<0.05).Conclusion Raman spectroscopy can effectively identify liver cancer tissues and para-cancerous cirrhotic liver tissues near the key peaks of 1,004,1,155,1,510,and 1,642 cm-1,and has potential clinical application value.