Cancer is a multifactorial disease that is often asymptomatic and is thus
detected at an advanced stage. Late detection and resistance to treatment are two of the
major reasons for poor prognosis. The inherent limitations of conventional tools in
evaluating therapeutic responses, raise the need to monitor such responses during
treatment. Raman spectroscopy is a rapid, label-free, minimally invasive optical
vibrational spectroscopy technique that has been widely employed for cancer detection.
There is also significant literature on its applications in intraoperative surgical margin
assessment, chemotherapeutic drug monitoring, and prediction of radiation response.
However, most books and reviews focus on the diagnostic and screening applications
of Raman spectroscopy. This chapter describes the role of Raman spectroscopy in the
therapeutic monitoring of cancers and discusses its prospective applications. The
present work provides a brief introduction to the basic principles of Raman
spectroscopy, concise information on cancer aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and
therapeutics, and applications of Raman spectroscopy in the therapeutic monitoring of
cancers. The role of Raman spectroscopy in monitoring conventional treatment
modalities such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, along with novel
treatment approaches such as immunotherapy and cold atmospheric plasma therapy, is
discussed in detail. The chapter concludes with a brief introduction to the emerging
field of Raman spectroscopy and artificial intelligence.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Cancer, Cancer Field Effects, Cancer Therapy, Chemoresistance, Chemotherapy, Cold Atmospheric Plasma Therapy, Immunotherapy, Radioresistance, Radiotherapy, Raman Spectroscopy, Recurrence Prediction, Surgery, Surgical Margin, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring.
