Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Early Detection/Cancer Prevention

Despite many medical advances, the survival rate for lung cancer (LC) in Canada is still very low: 19% (males) and 26% (females), with an estimated 20,700 Canadians dying of the disease in 2022. These grim statistics should be compared with those fortunate enough to be diagnosed early, where the survival rate is >90%. However, attempts to identify individuals with early-stage LC using a low-cost, and easy to use detection method have not been effective as was hoped. It is known that small amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are exhaled in the breath of a person with LC. Currently VOCs can be measured accurately with very expensive machines with long wait times for results. Our goal is to develop a much cheaper and faster VOC detection method using a technique called stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) and show that the VOCs are clearly different for a person with early-stage LC. Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a technique where VOCs absorb light with one color and re-emit it at other colors characteristic of the VOC type. RS is well known as a powerful technique for identifying VOCs. However, the concentration of VOCs in breath are so small RS is not sensitive enough to detect them. To be able to use the powerful capabilities of RS requires enhancing the Raman signal. The advent the hollow core silica fibre (HCSF), which can be loaded with a breath sample, has provided the means for this enhancement. We have already shown that such a SRS/HCSF system amplifies the intensity of single Raman peaks by over a million times. However, a single Raman peak is not enough to identify a VOC. We have proposed significant improvements to the SRS system which will enable the enhancement of multiple VOC Raman peaks. If successfully developed, SRS based VOC detection technology would greatly improve the survival rate for undiagnosed early-stage LC patients. It will also bring significant cost saving to the Canadian Healthcare System.