Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Early detection of cancer remains a significant difficulty in clinical practice. Traditional diagnostic methods frequently rely on tissue samples, which can be invasive and may fail to detect dynamic changes in the tumor microenvironment. Recent studies have underlined the importance of immune cells in recognizing and responding to malignant changes. In the early stages, immune cells actively detect and kill abnormal cells; but, as tumors advance, immune cells may become functionally exhausted, allowing malignant cells to escape immune surveillance. These functional changes in immune cells are accompanied by specific metabolic changes that are systematic and measurable. We believe that evaluating the metabolic state of tumor-associated immune cells can give a sensitive, minimally invasive method to cancer diagnosis. Raman spectroscopy, a label-free and non-destructive optical technology, may detect minute chemical and metabolic changes in individual immune cells, revealing extensive information on their functional status.