ORIGINAL PAPER The use of Raman spectroscopy to provide an estimation of the gross biochemistry associated with urological pathologies Nicholas Stone & Maria Consuelo Hart Prieto & Paul Crow & Jeremy Uff & Alistair William Ritchie Received: 30 June 2006 / Revised: 9 October 2006 / Accepted: 13 October 2006 / Published online: 23 November 2006 # Springer-Verlag 2006 Abstract Near-infrared Raman spectroscopy, an optical technique that is able to interrogate biological tissues, has been used to study bladder and prostate tissues, with the objective being to provide a first approximation of gross biochemical changes associated with the process of carcino- genesis. Prostate samples for this study were obtained by taking a chip at TURP, and bladder samples from a biopsy taken at TURBT and TURP, following ethical approval. Spectra were taken from purchased biochemical constitu- ents and different pathologies within the bladder and the prostate. We were then able to determine the biochemical basis for these pathologies by utilising an ordinary least- squares fit. We have shown for the first time that we are able to utilise Raman spectroscopy in determining the biochemical basis for the different pathologies within the bladder and prostate gland. In this way we can achieve a better understanding of disease processes such as carcino- genesis. This could have major implications in the future of the diagnosis of disease within the bladder and the prostate gland. Keywords Raman spectroscopy . Prostate . Bladder . Biochemistry . Carcinogenesis Introduction Raman spectroscopy Raman spectroscopy is an optical technique that can be used to interrogate biological tissues with chemical speci- ficity. In doing so it gives us an understanding of the changes in the molecular constituents that are associated with disease. With this in mind it was felt that Raman spectroscopy could be used to determine the biochemical basis for pathologies in the bladder and the prostate gland. By the start of the 1990s various groups were using Raman spectroscopy to distinguish between normal and neoplastic tissue. The first studies looked at differentiating between normal tissue and advanced cancers in the breast [1] and gynaecological organs [2, 3]. As techniques were refined, interest moved towards diagnosing neoplastic change at progressively earlier stages. To date, in vitro studies have also been undertaken to differentiate between different pathologies in a number of other tissues including colon [4, 5], oesophagus [6–8], brain [9], skin [10, 11] and larynx [12]. There has been a lot of research work done on the bladder and the prostate gland in the past, with the aim to provide a specific and sensitive means of distinguishing between the pathologies associated with these organs. It has already been shown that Raman spectroscopy can be used to achieve this; however, the studies have been exclusively in vitro to date [13, 14]. The research on the bladder and prostate gland has looked at a multivariate spectral fingerprint discrimination of pathologies rather than studying the biochemical basis of the pathologies in question. The biochemical changes that occur are thought to be a gradual continuum from normal to malignant. Therefore a means of detecting pre-malignancies Anal Bioanal Chem (2007) 387:1657–1668 DOI 10.1007/s00216-006-0937-9 N. Stone (*) : M. C. Hart Prieto : P. Crow Biophotonics Research Group, Pullman Court, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Great Western Road, Gloucester GL1 3NN, UK e-mail: n.stone@medical-research-centre.com J. Uff : A. W. Ritchie Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Great Western Road, Gloucester GL1 3NN, UK