The comparison of hair from gastric cancer patients and from healthy persons studied by infrared microspectroscopy and imaging using synchrotron radiation.

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to apply synchrotron-based FTIR microspectroscopy and imaging to human hair tissue and investigate the possibility of the method in gastric cancer research and diagnosis. METHODS: Human hair from gastric cancer patients' scalp and normal persons' scalp were studied by synchrotron-based FTIR microspectroscopy and imaging. RESULTS: The micro-spectra and imaging show the difference between the normal and malignant hair tissues. Obvious peak shift of symmetric phosphate band is observed in micro-spectra of medulla region for the hair tissue of gastric cancer patients. Chemical imaging shows the distributions of lipid and amide II/v(s)PO(2)(-) have changed in the gastric cancer cases. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that the hair tissue's infrared microspectroscopy and imaging using synchrotron will be a potentially useful method for rapid early gastric cancer diagnosis.