Terahertz pulsed imaging and spectroscopy of breast tumours

We report on a study using TPI for imaging breast tumours ex vivo. Several breast samples were imaged and parameters from the time domain impulse functions were used to reveal contrast. Good correlation was found for area and shape of tumour in the THz images compared to that of histology. Terahertz spectroscopy shows that both the absorption coefficient and refractive index were higher for breast tissue containing tumor compared to normal. This study demonstrates the potential of TPI to image both invasive breast carcinomas and ductal carcinoma in situ using THz and encourages further studies.