Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopic Comparison of Normal and Malignant Cervical Tissue Cervical Tissue.

Based on the accumulated data, FTIR spectroscopy seems to be a highly sensitive tool in cervical cancer diagnosis. We, therefore, employed this technique in a screening type of research here in Tehran. The purpose of this study was to look for the spectral pattern differences between normal and malignant cervix samples in Iranian women. Through formal and informal announcements, all gynecology departments in the educational hospitals of Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, as well as private clinics were asked to inform us of any volunteers (healthy or patient) for this research. Ectocervical smears were collected from volunteers with a spatula and then centrifuged to provide a small pellet of cells for FTIR analysis. A small amount of the pellet of cells was placed on a BaF₂ window, dried smoothly and placed in the sample holder of the FTIR instrument. For each spectrum, a total of 512 scans at 1 cm^-1 resolution were co-added. This grouping of spectra clearly showed changes in the course of the pathologic results obtained for different samples. Under study although we were not able to further categorize and correlate the spectral changes with different pathological states, but a specific FTIR spectral region differentaining between healthy and cancerous patients was detected in the 1000-1200 cm^-1 region of FTIR spectra. Wong’s group had also reported that a difference between the FTIR spectra of normal and malignant tissue is possible in this region (Wong et al., Pro. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 10988-10992). However, the pattern of our result does not agree with that of Wong. Wong et al. have found some rising peaks for cancerous samples, in this spectral region while we have observed some disappearing peaks in this region of malignant samples. Therefore, the main difference between our finding and that of Wong is that a higher stability has been reported for the DNA backbone in Wong’s study, while no stable bone was do servable in the cancerous tissues of cervix samples that we studied.