The Use of FTIR-ATR Spectrometry for Evaluation of Surgical Resection Margin in Colorectal Cancer: A Pilot Study of 56 Samples

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in human, and it is also one of the most leading causes of cancer-related death. Recently, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry is considered to develop into a new method for cancer diagnosis. In this study, colorectal cancer and mucosa 1？cm, 2？cm, and 5？cm away from tumor were measured by FTIR spectroscopy. FTIR spectra of colorectal cancer and mucosa 1？cm away from tumor were different from those of mucosa 2？cm and 5？cm away from tumor. According to the analysis of FTIR spectrometry, the decrease of lipid and the increase of protein and nucleic acid were observed in the former two sites. FTIR spectrometry, therefore, may be developed into a rapid promising method for judging surgical resection margin of colorectal cancer. 1. Introduction Colorectal cancer is a disease with a major worldwide burden. It is the fourth most common malignancy with 1.2 million people developing colorectal cancer annually, and it is also the third most common cause of cancer death in the world, responsible for 0.6 million deaths annually [1, 2]. Surgical resection is one of the most important methods in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The range of surgical removal was directly related to the postoperative recovery and long-term survival outcomes of the patient. If the resection range is too small, it may lead to tumor recurrence after operation and influence the patient’s long-term survival. And a beyond range of resection may lead to longer duration of postoperative recovery, even surgical complications. Therefore the determination of resection range is one of the core issues in the operation, and the safety of the distal and proximal resection margins of bowel should be ensured. Intraoperative pathological examination of frozen section is the most common method for checking the cutting edge, which usually takes about 40 minutes one time. For some patients difficult to diagnose, it may need to be taken for pathological examination several times in the operation. It will prolong the operation time and cause adverse effect on the recovery of patients after operation. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry provides abundant information concerning the variation of biological tissues at molecular level, so this approach may be developed as a new method for cancer diagnosis [3–9]. Meanwhile, less time is needed for each FTIR measurement, which takes approximately one to three minutes. In this paper, we perform a pilot study on the determination of surgical resection margin during the operation of