Traditionally, diagnosing cancer relies on invasive and time-consuming methods such as tissue biopsies. However, a new study published in ACS Central Science introduces a non-invasive alternative that uses pulsed infrared light to detect molecular patterns in blood plasma, potentially identifying several common cancers.
Blood Plasma as a Diagnostic Window
Blood plasma—the liquid part of blood that remains after removing cells—carries a wide variety of molecules like proteins, lipids, metabolites, and salts. Some of these molecules serve as biomarkers for disease. For example, high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) often indicate prostate cancer.
Recognizing the diagnostic potential of plasma, researchers led by Mihaela Žigman developed a technique to identify molecular “fingerprints” in plasma that are specific to certain cancers.
Electric-Field Molecular Fingerprinting in Action
As reported by medicalxpress, the team used a method called electric-field molecular fingerprinting, which sends ultra-short bursts of infrared light through blood plasma samples. This light interacts with the molecules in the plasma and produces a unique signal, or infrared molecular fingerprint, for each sample.
Researchers analyzed plasma from 2,533 participants, including individuals with lung, breast, prostate, or bladder cancer, as well as healthy controls. Each sample’s fingerprint was recorded and used to train a machine-learning model to recognize patterns linked to cancer.
Detecting Cancer with Impressive Accuracy
The model achieved up to 81% accuracy in identifying lung cancer by analyzing the unique infrared signatures of patients’ plasma. This suggests that cancer leaves a detectable biochemical imprint in blood plasma that can be identified using this laser-based approach.
However, the model showed lower accuracy for detecting prostate, breast, and bladder cancers. These findings highlight the method’s strong potential while also pointing to the need for further refinement.
A Step Toward Faster, Non-Invasive Screening
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to expand their work to include other types of cancer and health conditions. With further technological advances and independent clinical validation, this method could become a game-changer for cancer screening.
“Laser-based infrared molecular fingerprinting detects cancer, demonstrating its potential for clinical diagnostics,” said Žigman. “With the right advancements and rigorous testing, it could pave the way for quicker, less invasive cancer detection in the future.”