Photoacoustic Spectrum Analysis for Quick Identification and Grading of Prostate Cancer

Quick identification of tumor and normal tissue accurately is crucial for clinical management of cancer. In this work, photoacoustic spectrum analysis (PASA) has been investigated for evaluation the presence and the aggressiveness of prostate cancer via an ex vivo study on human prostate specimens. A total of 120 fresh tissue samples from prostate needle biopsy were involved. As demonstrated by the PASA results, significantly decreased lipid and collagen contents were observed in cancerous tissues compared to the normal ones (p<; 0.01), accompanied by significantly increased heterogeneity in microstructures in cancerous tissues (p<; 0.01). In addition, high-risk aggressive cancerous tissues were successfully distinguished from low-risk cancerous ones with statistical significance (p<; 0.001). The detection time of each sample is less than 5 minutes. The results of this study indicate that the noninvasive diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer can be realized rapidly by PASA.