A review on diverse spectroscopic methods for identification of hepato-pancreato-biliary diseases using human bile as a specimen

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), pancreatic cancer, and gallbladder (GB) cancer are typical hepato-pancreato-biliary cancers that affect the functions of involved organs of digestion and metabolism. Since five-year survival rates of these cancers remain low, ranging from 13% for pancreatic cancer to 22% for HCC, there is need for effective early cancer detection and treatment strategies. Spectroscopic methods analyzing human bile are promising for fast and simple metabolite-based diagnosis, along with conventional computerized tomography (CT) and endoscopy. This review summarizes relevant reports that employed vibrational spectroscopic techniques of near-infrared (NIR), infrared (IR), and Raman spectroscopy; atomic spectroscopy based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES); and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for analysis of human bile samples. The analytical methods identified widely different metabolites in bile based on the characteristics of the spectroscopic method. Therefore, these spectroscopic signatures of bile samples were complementary to each other for identification of related disease. Finally, current challenges and prospects were discussed.