Spectroscopic analysis of bladder cancer tissues using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers in Africa. It takes several days to reach a diagnosis using histological examinations of specimens obtained by endoscope, which increases the medical expense. Recently, spectroscopic analysis of bladder cancer tissues has received considerable attention as a diagnosis technique due to its sensitivity to biochemical variations in the samples. This study investigated the use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to analyze a number of bladder cancer tissues. Twenty-two samples were collected from 11 patients diagnosed with bladder cancer from different hospitals without any pretreatment. From each patient two samples were collected, one normal and another cancerous. FTIR spectrometer was used to differentiate between normal and cancerous bladder tissues via changes in spectra of these samples. The investigations detected obvious changes in the bands of proteins (1650, 1550 cm^–1), lipids (2925, 2850 cm^–1), and nucleic acid (1080, 1236 cm^–1). The results show that FTIR spectroscopy is promising as a rapid, accurate, nondestructive, and easy to use alternative method for identification and diagnosis of bladder cancer tissues.