Label free technologies 3: infrared imaging applied to paraffinized tissue microarrays for colon cancer diagnosis

Introduction Colorectal cancers are the third most common type of cancers globally, affecting both sexes [1]. As of now, histopathology is the gold standard method for colon cancer diagnosis. Newer technologies are the important need of the hour to complement the existing approaches, for better understanding the onset and progression of the disease. Infrared (IR) imaging could be a potential candidate method because of its capability to probe non-destructively and in a label-free manner the intrinsic chemical bonds present in the tissue, thus giving a “spectral fingerprint” of its composition and structures. To this end, we have developed IR spectral histopathology with the aims to: (a) examine, the molecular changes between normal and tumoral colon tissues, (b) exploit its potentials to identify new diagnostic markers to complement conventional histopathology, and (c) develop an algorithm as an automatic diagnostic tool for tumor prediction, directly on paraffinized samples, without chemical de-waxing, staining or any further preparation.