Differentiation of cutaneous melanoma from surrounding skin using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Jung Hyun Han; Youngmin Moon; Jong Jin Lee; Sujeong Choi; Yong-Chul Kim; Sungho Jeong

doi:10.1364/BOE.7.000057

Differentiation of cutaneous melanoma from surrounding skin using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Biomed Opt Express. 2015 Dec 8;7(1):57-66. doi: 10.1364/BOE.7.000057. eCollection 2016 Jan 1.

Authors

Jung Hyun Han¹, Youngmin Moon¹, Jong Jin Lee², Sujeong Choi³, Yong-Chul Kim⁴, Sungho Jeong⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical System Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea; Co-first authors with equal contribution.
² Department of Medical System Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea.
³ School of Life Sciences, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Medical System Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea; School of Life Sciences, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea; Co-corresponding authors: yongchul@gist.ac.kr.
⁵ School of Mechatronics, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, 1 Oryong-dong Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, South Korea.

Abstract

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has the potential to be used as a surgical tool for simultaneous tissue ablation and elemental analysis of the ablated tissue. LIBS may be used to distinguish melanoma lesions from the surrounding dermis based on the quantitative difference of elements within melanoma lesions. Here, we measured the elements in homogenized pellets and real tissues from excised skin samples of melanoma-implanted mice. In addition, statistical analysis of LIBS spectra using principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis was performed. Our results showed that this method had high detection sensitivity, highlighting the potential of this tool in clinical applications.

Keywords: (120.3890) Medical optics instrumentation; (170.1020) Ablation of tissue; (170.1870) Dermatology; (300.6365) Spectroscopy, laser induced breakdown.