Evaluating the Use of Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Sensing for Colorectal Mucosa Cancer Detection

This article presents an in silico and in vitro study concerning the application of a trapezoidal prism-based surface plasmon resonance chip to detect colorectal cancer (CRC) by analyzing the mucosa tissue. The sensor is a multilayered structure and works in the wavelength interrogation mode (WIM). Performance parameters related to the metallic film characteristics, such as thickness and type of metal, were determined. For the analyzed noble metals, the silver film of 40 nm has the highest sensitivity of 6454.12 nm/RIU, and the 60-nm thick presents the best values for full width at half maximum (FWHM) and parameter (20.20 nm and 286.63 RIU -1). The palladium (Pd) nanolayer deposition enhanced the sensitivity by 10.81% for copper film and peaks at 6497.04 nm/RIU for the silver film. The Pd nanolayer also provokes deeper dips in the reflectance spectrum. Tissue phantoms were used to study the sensor response to solid surrounding medium to show the feasibility and the correctness of the proposed methodology.