Cancer monitoring by FTIR spectroscopy.

Evidence for balanced cell growth where protein and RNA content rise at a constant relative rate with respect to DNA content with increasing grade of cancer and with malignant transformation, is derived from analysis of infrared spectra of malignant lymphoma and transformed fibroblasts within the literature. This evidence is consistent with flow cytometry derived RNA-protein relationships, and supports the biosynthetic connection proposed here between the RNA/DNA ratio as calculated from the absorbance pulse at 1121 cm(-1), and the protein/nucleic acid ratio as measured by the absorbance ratio A1650 cm(-1)/A1084 cm(-1). The present analysis is the first to explain and show evidence for a simple unifying biomolecular content theory for interdependent changes seen within the fingerprint region (900 cm(-1)-1750 cm(-1)) of the infrared spectrum of cells.