Development and Testing of a Single Frequency Terahertz Imaging System for Breast Cancer Detection

Author

St. Peter, Benjamin ; Yngvesson, S. ; Siqueira, Paul ; Kelly, Patrick ; Khan, Ajmal ; Glick, Stephen ; Karellas, Andrew

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

Volume

17

Issue

4

fYear

2013

fDate

Jul-13

Firstpage

785

Lastpage

797

Abstract

The ability to discern malignant from benign tissue in excised human breast specimens in Breast Conservation Surgery (BCS) was evaluated using single frequency terahertz radiation. Terahertz (THz) images of the specimens in reflection mode were obtained by employing a gas laser source and mechanical scanning. The images were correlated with optical histological micrographs of the same specimens, and a mean discrimination of 73% was found for five out of six samples using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis. The system design and characterization is discussed in detail. The initial results are encouraging but further development of the technology and clinical evaluation is needed to evaluate its feasibility in the clinical environment.

Keywords

biological organs; biological tissues; cancer; gas lasers; laser applications in medicine; optical microscopy; sensitivity analysis; surgery; terahertz wave imaging; BCS; ROC analysis; benign tissue; breast cancer detection; breast conservation surgery; clinical environment; clinical evaluation; discern malignant; excised human breast specimens; gas laser source; mechanical scanning; optical histological micrographs; receiver operating characteristic analysis; reflection mode; single frequency terahertz imaging; single frequency terahertz radiation; Breast cancer; THz; medical imaging; reflectivity; refractive index; single frequency THz imaging (SFTI);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Biomedical and Health Informatics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2168-2194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JBHI.2013.2267351

Filename

6549204