Terahertz endoscopic imaging for colorectal cancer detection: Current status and future perspectives

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) imaging is progressing as a robust platform for myriad applications in the field of security, health, and material science. The THz regime, which comprises wavelengths spanning from microns to millimeters, is non-ionizing and has very low photon energy: Making it inherently safe for biological imaging. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world, while the conventional screening and standard of care yet relies exclusively on the physician’s experience. Researchers have been working on the development of a flexible THz endoscope, as a potential tool to aid in colorectal cancer screening. This involves building a single-channel THz endoscope, and profiling the THz response from colorectal tissue, and demonstrating endogenous contrast levels between normal and diseased tissue when imaging in reflection modality. The current level of contrast provided by the prototype THz endoscopic system represents a significant step towards clinical endoscopic application of THz technology for in-vivo colorectal cancer screening. The aim of this paper is to provide a short review of the recent advances in THz endoscopic technology and cancer imaging. In particular, the potential of single-channel THz endoscopic imaging for colonic cancer screening will be highlighted.

The medical application of terahertz technology in non-invasive detection of cells and tissues: opportunities and challenges

“…59 At present, the hypothesis have been performed by four procedure in sequence, showing the sensitive screening for colorectal cancer. 60…”

Investigation of Fresh Gastric Normal and Cancer Tissues Using Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy

“…Additionally, different types of THz endoscopes were created, which made it possible to discriminate between normal and cancer tissues in vivo [12,13]. It is expected that further development of THz technologies will make it possible to create new effective and commercially inexpensive devices for the diagnostics of digestive systems, based on the THz methods [14]. Thus, all of these studies showed a large potential of THz methods in gastric cancer diagnosis.…”

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy for non-invasive assessment of water content in biological samples

“…Besides, as THz radiation is characterized by the strong water absorption [12], this frequency range can be used as a sensitive and precise non-invasive hydration probe, in particular, to monitor biotissue dehydration [13,14]. The development of a new tool for highly accurate non-invasive assessment the of water content within the biological tissues would help enormously in such areas as cancer diagnosis [15][16][17][18][19], food and other products quality control [8,20] or plants' stress responses monitoring [21][22][23].…”