Abstract B29: Terahertz spectral imaging and scanning for early detection of skin cancer

A terahertz diagnosis tool has been developed to identify early stage skin cancer at the cellular level. Here, three different techniques are used where each technique independently identifies a given disease condition compared to healthy skin specimen; thus, collectively forms a diagnostic procedure with minimal falls alarm. Namely, terahertz sub-surface spectral imaging, terahertz absorbance spectroscopy and skin thickness profiling have been used. Terahertz radiation is non-ionizing, therefore, save for in-vivo investigations. It is also more sensitive than other forms of probing energies. In the present work, biopsies from three skin disease conditions have been compared with a healthy skin sample. It was found that the terahertz images clearly visualize healthy skin cells where a regular cellular pattern is visible. In contrast, cancerous skin specimen images exhibit deterioration from regular cellular pattern indicating abnormal conditions. For example, the skin specimen excised by Mohs microsurgery and diagnosed for basal cell carcinoma exhibits cell agglomeration indicating the onset of tumor formation. Similarly, other skin conditions such as squamous cell carcinoma and lentigo maligna exhibit their characteristic images without a regular cell pattern. Since the skin is a layered structure, a thickness profile of the healthy skin clearly exhibits this layering pattern while the layering is significantly diminished for cancerous skin samples. Thus a diminished layering profile is an indication of skin abnormalities. In addition, spectral analyses also exhibit distinguishable differences between different cancer conditions compared to healthy skin spectrum. Details of the methodology and results will be discussed. Note: This abstract was not presented at the conference. Citation Format: Anis Rahman, Aunik K. Rahman, Babar Rao. Terahertz spectral imaging and scanning for early detection of skin cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Improving Cancer Risk Prediction for Prevention and Early Detection; Nov 16-19, 2016; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(5 Suppl):Abstract nr B29.