Raman Spectroscopy: A Tool for Molecular Fingerprinting of Brain Cancer

Sep 24, 2026

Brain cancer has high mortality and low five-year survival, largely because noninvasive, real-time diagnosis and monitoring of benign and malignant brain tumors remains difficult. Raman spectroscopy provides sensitive and specific molecular marker profiles from biological samples, enabling early diagnosis and tracking. This review summarizes Raman spectroscopy fundamentals and major types, including conventional Raman, SERS, SORS, SRS, and CARS. It also evaluates Raman’s role in theragnostics and clinical workflows toward a unified solution for brain cancer needs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Raman spectroscopy principles and Raman effect

Raman spectroscopy types for brain tumors

Brain tumor background and classification

Review scope and theragnostics outlook

[http://pubs.acs.org/journal/acsodf](http://pubs.acs.org/journal/acsodf) Review Raman Spectroscopy: A Tool for Molecular Fingerprinting of Brain Cancer Sivasubramanian Murugappan, Syed A. M. Tofail, and Nanasaheb D. Thorat * Cite This: ACS Omega 2023, 8, 27845−27861 Read Online | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | ACCESS | Metrics & More | | Article Recommendations | ABSTRACT: Brain cancer is one of those few cancers with very high mortality and low five-year survival rate. First and foremost reason for the woes is the difficulty in diagnosing and monitoring the progression of brain tumors both benign and malignant, noninvasively and in realtime. This raises a need in this hour for a tool to diagnose the tumors in the earliest possible time frame. On the other hand, Raman spectroscopy which is well-known for its ability to precisely represent the molecular markers available in any sample given, including biological ones, with great sensitivity and specificity. This has led to a number of studies where Raman spectroscopy has been used in brain tumors in various ways. This review article highlights the fundamentals of Raman spectroscopy and its types including conventional Raman, SERS, SORS, SRS, CARS, etc. are used in brain tumors for diagnostics, monitoring, and even theragnostics, collating all the major works in the area. Also, the review explores how Raman spectroscopy can be even more effectively used in theragnostics and the clinical level which would make them a one-stop solution for all brain cancer needs in the future. ■ INTRODUCTION Raman Spectroscopy is one of those very few techniques which is label-free (other major ones being NMR, XPS, UV−vis, FTIR, mass spectroscopy), nondestructive, and cost-effective among those that can give a molecular profile of the samples. Numerous research groups are working on improving the conventionally used Raman instruments, integrating them with other instruments to utilize as a multimodal tool, and changing/enhancing parameters to increase performance efficiency, portability, affordability, etc. This has led to various Raman spectroscopy types namely resonance Raman, surfaceenhanced Raman (SERS), spatially offset Raman (SORS), confocal Raman microspectroscopy, etc. They have been used in various industries including forensics, pharma, food, etc., especially in quality control. Raman being nondestructive is also very well suited for biological sample analysis too. This potentiates its capability to act as a disease diagnostics and monitoring instrument. Lately, they have been modified and integrated to be used in treatment too. Raman Spectroscopy works based on the Raman effect where the inelastic scattering of photons results in their movement from ground vibrational energy states to virtual energy states and back. But if they stop at a higher or lower vibrational energy state than where they started, it is called Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering, respectively.1 This when recorded for different samples varies according to their composition which is digitally represented in the form of peaks based on the intensity and frequency variations observed, helping in the identification of the sample composition. This helps Raman spectroscopy recognize and distinguish cell lines and tissue samples both in vivo and ex vivo. Moreover, within these groups too, they can classify based on the biochemical composition be it normal or tumorous, between different grades of cancer, etc. Brain tumor is caused by the abnormal growth of cells in the brain region. Still, why a person gets a brain tumor is not well established but a few reasons for getting one include rare genetic conditions like von Hippel-Lindau disease, tuberous sclerosis, etc. Brain tumor usually occurs in the meninges or glial cells. In most cases, a meningioma tumor in the meninges is benign, while glial cells called glioma can be malignant. The tumors are classified into 4 grades with malig

FAQs

Why is there a need for better tools to diagnose and monitor brain cancer?

Brain cancer has high mortality and low five-year survival largely due to difficulty in diagnosing and monitoring tumor progression noninvasively and in real time.

How does Raman spectroscopy support molecular fingerprinting for brain tumors?

Raman spectroscopy relies on Raman scattering, producing peaks whose intensity and frequency reflect sample composition, enabling distinction of cell lines and tissue samples in vivo and ex vivo.

What Raman spectroscopy types are highlighted for brain tumor diagnostics and monitoring?

The review highlights conventional Raman and multiple variants such as SERS, SORS, SRS, and CARS, describing how they are used for diagnostics, monitoring, and theragnostics.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn Holloway