3360 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 37, No. 16 / August 15, 2012 Stokes shift spectroscopy highlights differences of cancerous and normal human tissues Yang Pu, Wuabo Wang, Yuanlong Yang, and R. R. Alfano* Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, and Department of Physics, City College of the City University of New York, Convent Avenue at 138th Street, New York, New York 10031, USA *Corresponding author:
[email protected] Received May 15, 2012; accepted June 25, 2012; posted June 28, 2012 (Doc. ID 168649); published August 6, 2012 The Stokes shift spectroscopy (S3) offers a simpler and better way to recognize spectral fingerprints of fluorophores in complex mixtures. The efficiency of S3 for cancer detection in human tissue was investigated systematically. The alterations of Stokes shift spectra (S3) between cancerous and normal tissues are due to the changes of key fluor- ophores, e.g., tryptophan and collagen, and can be highlighted using optimized wavelength shift interval. To our knowledge, this is the first time to explicitly disclose how and why S3 is superior in comparison with other conventional spectroscopic techniques. © 2012 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 170.0170, 170.6510, 300.0300, 300.6170. Fluorescence spectroscopy has been widely investigated These differences may reflect tissue fluorophores’ for diagnosing cancer since the study by Alfano et al. in change during the evolution of cancer. In order to under- the 1980s [1]. The difference between the emission and stand which components mainly contribute to these absorption peaks is known as the Stokes shift interval, changes, S3 of the main fluorophores in breast tissue, Δλss.