Use of Raman Spectroscopy as a Noninvasive Tool for Cancer Detection in Human Saliva

Abstract

Cancer now tops heart disease as the number one cause of death in the United States and is the second leading cause of death globally, accounting for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. There is an urgent need for rapid, highly accurate, and non-invasive techniques for cancer detection. High costs and radiation exposure resulting from current techniques like Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) restrict their use for screening. To address these shortcomings, we plan to use Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) as a method of identifying cancer biomarkers in human saliva samples.