Human breast carcinomal tissues display distinctive FTIR spectra: implication for the histological characterization of carcinomas

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic study of human breast normal and c arcinomal tissues has been carried out. Some distinctive spectral differenc es which are mainly due to nucleic acids and proteins are observed between normal and carcinomal tissues. This method of analysis results in nearly 10 0% diagnostic accuracy of carcinomal tissues from normal tissues. The spect ral patterns of well-differentiated carcinomal tissues exhibit marked heter ogeneity, however that of poorly differentiated carcinomas demonstrate sign ificant similarity. Apocrine, tubular, intraductal and mucinous carcinomas and invasive infiltrating ductal carcinomal tissues can be discriminated ba sed on their characteristic spectra. The spectral differences confirm the p ossibility of using FTIR as an accurate and rapid technique to distinguish between normal and malignant breast tissues and classify breast carcinomas in different subtypes.