Towards the intra-operative use of Raman spectroscopy in breast cancer-overcoming the effects of theatre lighting.

The ability to use Raman spectroscopy to assess tissue in the operative theatre setting could be advantageous for both patients and clinicians. In this study, a method of overcoming the deleterious effects of theatre lighting on the Raman spectra is demonstrated. The effectiveness of this technique is highlighted both within the theatre setting and using human lymph node tissue. The portable MiniRam II Raman spectroscopy device that incorporated a 785-nm laser was used in all experiments. This is an important step towards the use of Raman spectroscopy as a means of analysing sentinel lymph nodes in patients who have been newly diagnosed with breast cancer.