title: Spectral Imaging with Scattered Light: From Early Cancer Detection to Cell Biology.
abstract: This article reports the evolution of scanning spectral imaging techniques using scattered light for minimally invasive detection of early cancerous changes in tissue and cell biology applications. Optical spectroscopic techniques have shown promising results in the diagnosis of disease on a cellular scale. They do not require tissue removal, can be performed in vivo, and allow for real time diagnoses. Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy are most effective in revealing molecular properties of tissue. Light scattering spectroscopy (LSS) relates the spectroscopic properties of light elastically scattered by small particles, such as epithelial cell nuclei and organelles, to their size, shape and refractive index. It is capable of characterizing the structural properties of tissue on cellular and sub-cellular scales. However, in order to be useful in the detection of early cancerous changes which are otherwise not visible to the naked eye, it must rapidly survey a comparatively large area while simultaneously detecting these cellular changes. Both goals are achieved by combining LSS with spatial scanning imaging. Two examples are described in this article. The first reviews a clinical system for screening patients with Barrett's esophagus. The second presents a novel advancement in confocal light absorption and scattering spectroscopic (CLASS) microscopy.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging and Spectroscopy Laboratory, Department of Obgyn and Reproductive Biology, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, and Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02215 USA.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Turzhitsky
authors.forename: Ram
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chuttani
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pleskow
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Goldsmith
authors.forename: Lianyu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vitkin
authors.forename: Irving
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Itzkan
authors.forename: Eugene B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Hanlon
authors.forename: Lev T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Perelman