Terahertz spectroscopy and imaging for gastric cancer diagnosis

Abstract

Terahertz waves are sensitive to differences in biological tissue hydration, we present promising results regarding the feasibility of applying this with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and imaging for early detection of cancer through the characterisation of human gastrointestinal tissue with cancer-affected regions. To do that, healthy (normal) and carcinoma-affected gastric tissue samples at different stages were measured using transmission terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in the frequency range of 0.15–2.00 THz. Absorption coefficients and refractive index spectra of both normal and carcinoma-affected tissue were extracted and analysed. The results confirm that the techniques may be powerful tools to perform qualitative, early diagnosis of human cancer.