High-sensitivity in vivo THz transmission imaging of early human breast cancer in a subcutaneous xenograft mouse model

Abstract

We performed in vivo THz transmission imaging study on a subcutaneous xenograft mouse model for early human breast cancer detection. With a THz-fiber-scanning transmission imaging system, we continuously monitored the growth of human breast cancer in mice. Our in vivo study not only indicates that THz transmission imaging can distinguish cancer from the surrounding fatty tissue, but also with a high sensitivity. Our in vivo study on the subcutaneous xenograft mouse model will encourage broad and further investigations for future early cancer screening by using THz imaging system.

Biomedical Applications of Terahertz Spectroscopy and Imaging

“…(i) Water content: cancerous or diseased tissues may contain more interstitial water as a result of abundant vascularity or tissue edema [47], as demonstrated by positron emission tomography, MRI, and frequency-domain photon migration. Therefore, these tissues display obviously different THz absorption from that of normal tissues.…”

THz Pulsed Imaging in Biomedical Applications

“…In fact, the presence of cancer induces, in many cases, increased blood supply to the affected tissues and a local increase in tissue water content, which suggests water contrast for THz cancer imaging [171]. As a result, it involves a higher refractive index and absorption coefficient [39,169,172]. As proof, Figure 5 shows refractive indexes and absorption coefficients of normal and cancer regions of a fresh rat brain tissue sample, as a function of frequency [39].…”

Pulsed terahertz imaging of breast cancer in freshly excised murine tumors

“…13 They have also been used to obtain FFPE xenograft liver tumors from H22 liver cancer cells for THz imaging 14 and breast cancer tumors grown from MDA MB 231 cells imaged subcutaneously in vivo and fresh ex vivo. 15 This work makes use of E0771 mouse-derived breast adenocarcinoma to generate xenograft tumors for excision and THz imaging. Additionally, a high-fat diet is used to provide a sufficient fatty background for xenograft tumors to more closely resemble human excised tissue.…”