ABSTRACT
The autofluorescence spectra of human tissues excited with 33'7,1-nm line of pulse nitrogen laser have been measured. The autofluorescence spectra of cancerous tissues consistently exhibit characteristic peaks near E530-nm and 690-nm. which do not appear in the spectra of the corresponding normal tissues. Spectroscopic investigation indicates that the porphyrin compounds localized and retained in cancerous tissues might be responsible for this characteristic autofluorescence. This preliminary result suggests the possibility of employing spectroscopy tool for complementary diagnosis of cancer along with the traditional methods of pathological analysis.