Feasibility of Cancer Detection Through X-Ray Diffraction of Human Nails

Background/Objectives: Establishing biomarkers is crucial for early cancer detection. Structural biomarkers can be revealed by noninvasive X-ray diffraction. We applied this approach to human nails and observed structural changes in the major nail tissue component, keratin, which coincided with a cancer diagnosis.

Methods

X-ray diffraction patterns were obtained from 230 nail samples (control/cancer split: 92/138) belonging to 133 patients (48/85) in wide (WAXS) and small (SAXS) ranges of scattering angles. For both ranges, we obtained one-dimensional scattering profiles in meridional and equatorial directions. We examined these profiles using machine-learning techniques such as logistic regression and linear discriminant analysis.