Human breast tissue cancer diagnosis by FT-IR spectroscopy

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic study of normal, benign and carcinomal human breast tissues has been carried out. To our best knowledge, this work is the first statistical research on FT-IR spectroscopy-based diagnosis of breast cancers among the Iraqi women. Because of FT-IR sensitivity to the changes in the biomolecules in the tissues, it can be used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of cancerous breast tissues. FT- IR spectra ware taken for 91 samples of breast tissues that were previously histopathologically identified by pathologist experienced as: 63 normal (N) samples, 8 hyperplasia (H) samples, 10 fibro adenoma (F) samples, 10 ductal carcinoma (DC) samples. Several spectral differences were detected in the frequency range between 400 cm-1 and 4000 cm-1. The ratio of intensities of the bands of A2925/A2854, A1653/A1545, A1343/A1450, A1083/A1236 and A1163/A1545 supplied conformational changes of lipids, protein, collagen, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates respectively in the breast tissues. There are remarkable differences in the spectral features between normal, benign and malignant tissues because of changes in molecules structure that accompany the transformation from a normal to a cancerous state during carcinogenesis, where the concentration of lipid is lower in cancerous breast tissues, as opposed to normal breast tissues, while the content of DNA, protein and collagen have been increased in benign and cancerous tissues . These differences in the spectral information may serve for the diagnosis of breast cancer.