Photoacoustic spectral analysis at ultraviolet wavelengths for characterizing the Gleason grades of prostate cancer

The diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer (PCa) has relied on microscopic architectures, namely Gleason patterns, of tissues extracted through core biopsies. Technology capable of assessing the tissue architecture without tissue extraction will reduce the invasiveness of PCa diagnosis and improve diagnostic accuracy by allowing for more sampling locations. Our recently developed photoacoustic spectral analysis (PASA) has achieved quantification of tissue architectural heterogeneity interstitially. Taking advantage of the unique optical absorption of cell nuclei at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, this study investigated PASA at 266 nm for quantifying the tissue architecture heterogeneity in prostates. The results have shown significant differences among the normal, early cancer, and late cancer stages in mouse prostates ex vivo and in vivo (n = 20, p < 0.05). The study with human samples ex vivo has shown a correlation of 0.80 (n = 11, p < 0.05) between PASA quantification and pathologic diagnosis.