Synchronous luminescence spectroscopy of human breast tissue

Abstract

We report, to our knowledge, the first use of synchronous luminescence (SL) spectroscopy for autofluorescence diagnosis of cancer. The spectral narrowing effect of the SL spectroscopy led to an easier identification of the different fluorophores present in human breast tissues and provided relative estimate of their concentration in qualitative agreement with the estimates obtained from conventional excitation and emission spectroscopy. Further, the SL spectra from human breast tissues could discriminate cancerous tissues from benign tumors and normal tissues with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% in a study involving 34 patients with breast tumor (19 ductal carcinomas and 15 fibroadenomas).