Implementation of a classification strategy of Raman data collected in different clinical conditions: application to the diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

The literature is rich in proof of concept studies demonstrating the potential of Raman spectroscopy for disease diagnosis. However, few studies are conducted in a clinical context to demonstrate its applicability in current clinical practice and workflow. Indeed, this translational research remains far from the patient’s bedside for several reasons. First, samples are often cultured cell lines. Second, they are prepared on non-standard substrates for clinical routine. Third, a unique supervised classification model is usually constructed using inadequate cross-validation strategy. Finally, the implemented models maximize classification accuracy without taking into account the clinician’s needs. In this paper, we address these issues through a diagnosis problem in real clinical conditions, i.e., the diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia from fresh unstained blood smears spread on glass slides. From Raman data acquired in different experimental conditions, a repeated double cross-validation strategy was combined with different cross-validation approaches, a consensus label strategy and adaptive thresholds able to adapt to the clinician’s needs. Combined with validation at the patient level, classification results were improved compared to traditional strategies.