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Date of Award

Spring 2021

Degree Name

Master of Medical Science (Physician Assistant)

Department

Physician Assistant; College of Health Sciences

First Advisor

Kimberly Erikson, MMS, PA-C

Abstract

Ovarian cancer has high mortality and is difficult to diagnose early utilizing CA125 levels and transvaginal ultrasound. Raman spectroscopy has been studied in other cancers and can be applied to tissues or blood samples. This review evaluates the ability of Raman spectroscopy to identify ovarian cancer in ovarian tissue, blood serum, and blood plasma samples from women diagnosed with the disease. A literature search yielded six case control studies (two studies for each tissue type) that explore Raman spectroscopy applied to these samples. These experiments detected differences between the Raman spectra of ovarian cancer samples and normal tissues that could be analyzed using algorithms to identify ovarian cancer. However, the low validities and disparities between these studies and their results cannot support the hypothesis that Raman spectroscopy applied to any of these three sample types is effective at diagnosing ovarian cancer. The variance of peaks in the spectra of diseased samples and normal samples does indicate that Raman spectroscopy has potential to be useful in identifying ovarian cancer, but further research with larger representative cohorts and standardized procedures and algorithms is needed to determine its value as a diagnostic tool.

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The Efficacy of Raman Spectroscopy in Diagnosing Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer has high mortality and is difficult to diagnose early utilizing CA125 levels and transvaginal ultrasound. Raman spectroscopy has been studied in other cancers and can be applied to tissues or blood samples. This review evaluates the ability of Raman spectroscopy to identify ovarian cancer in ovarian tissue, blood serum, and blood plasma samples from women diagnosed with the disease. A literature search yielded six case control studies (two studies for each tissue type) that explore Raman spectroscopy applied to these samples. These experiments detected differences between the Raman spectra of ovarian cancer samples and normal tissues that could be analyzed using algorithms to identify ovarian cancer. However, the low validities and disparities between these studies and their results cannot support the hypothesis that Raman spectroscopy applied to any of these three sample types is effective at diagnosing ovarian cancer. The variance of peaks in the spectra of diseased samples and normal samples does indicate that Raman spectroscopy has potential to be useful in identifying ovarian cancer, but further research with larger representative cohorts and standardized procedures and algorithms is needed to determine its value as a diagnostic tool.