Techniques for cervical cancer screening and diagnosis

In this chapter, different techniques used for cervical cancer, including Papanicolaou (Pap) smear, colposcopy, human papillomavirus deoxyribonucleic acid/ribonucleic acid-based techniques, visual inspection with acetic acid, histological examination, confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography, and vibrational spectroscopy, are discussed. These techniques are currently in use for research or clinical purposes. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques, with particular focus on vibrational spectroscopy, are elaborated. Moreover, the use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman microspectroscopy is demonstrated and the spectral data acquired by using these techniques are compared to demonstrate that Raman microspectroscopy has great potential to be used for the early diagnosis of cancer. The results presented and discussed so far for FTIR and Raman microspectroscopy and their comparison point toward the greater suitability of the latter technique for the current study.