AIM: To explore the difference between cancer cells and normal cells, we investigated the Raman spectra of singlecells from gastrointestinal cancer patients. METHODS: All samples were obtained from 30 diagnosed as gastrointestinal cancer patients. The flesh tumor specimen is located in the center of tumor tissue, while the normal ones were 5 cm away from the outside tumor section. The imprint was put under the microscope and a single cell was chosen for Raman measurement. All spectra were collected at confocal Raman micro-spectroscopy (British Renishaw) with NIR 780 nm laser.RESULTS: We measured the Raman spectra of several cells from gastrointestinal cancer patients. The result shows that there exists the strong line at 1 002/cm with less half-width assigned to the phenylalanine in several cells. The Raman lines of white cell were lower and less, while those of red cell were not only higher in intensity and more abundant, but also had a parti cular C-N breathing stretching band of pyrrole ring at 1 620-1 540/cm. The line at 1 084/cm assigned to phosphate backbone of DNA became obviously weaker in cancer cell. The Raman spectra of stomach cancer cells were similar to those of normal cells, but the Raman intensity of cancer cells was much lower than that of normal cells, and even some lines disappear. The lines of enteric cancer cells became weaker than spectra above and many lines disappeared, and the cancer cells in different position had different fluorescence intensity.CONCLUSION: The Raman spectra of several cells from cancer patients show that the structural changes of cancer cells happen and many bonds rupture so that the biological function of cells are lost. The results indicate that Raman spectra can offer the experiment basis for the cancer diagnosis and treatment.