Objective To analyze the difference in spectral characteristics between lung adenocarcinoma tumor profile and normal lung tissue by multispectral imaging (MSI) technology, and to explore its feasibility to quickly evaluate the invasive components of ground-glass nodular lung adenocarcinoma during operation.

Methods This study was a prospective observational cohort study. Nine patients with lung adenocarcinoma diagnosed as pulmonary ground-glass nodules by chest CT in Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University at August 2022 were selected. To explore the different characteristic spectral changes of ground-glass nodular lung adenocarcinoma with different proportion of infiltrating components, MSI was performed on the profiles of lung adenocarcinoma and peripheral normal lung tissue sections.

Results Through profile MSI, it was found that lung adenocarcinoma had a characteristic three-peak elevation near the three characteristic absorption peaks of hemoglobin (420 nm, 540 nm, 580 nm) compared with normal lung tissue. It also showed characteristic elevation at 450-510 nm. With the increase of infiltrating components, the difference in hemoglobin content between the lung adenocarcinoma profile and the normal lung tissue profile increased. The spectral ratio curve of lung adenocarcinoma profile drawn based on normal lung tissue had three gradually increasing ratio peaks, and the relative height of the three ratio peaks could reflect the content of tumor infiltrating components.

Conclusions The lung adenocarcinoma tumor profile with ground-glass nodules on imaging has characteristic spectral changes compared to the normal lung tissue profile. Quantifying the characteristic spectral changes can quickly predict the proportion of invasive components in lung adenocarcinoma lesions.