Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world. The current standard of care for colorectal cancer is the conventional colonoscopy, which relies exclusively on the Physician’s experience. Continuous wave terahertz (THz) imaging has the potential to offer a safe, noninvasive medical imaging modality for detecting cancers. The current study demonstrates the design and development of a prototype terahertz endoscopic system based on flexible metal-coated terahertz waveguides. A CO₂ pumped Far-Infrared molecular gas laser operating at 584 GHz frequency was used for illuminating the tissue, while the reflected signals were detected using liquid Helium cooled silicon bolometer. The continuous-wave terahertz imaging system utilizes a single waveguide channel to transmit the radiation and collect the back reflected intrinsic terahertz signal from the sample and is capable of operation in both transmission and reflection modalities. The two dimensional reflectance images obtained using a prototype terahertz endoscopic system showed intrinsic contrast between cancerous and normal regions of the colorectal tissue, thereby demonstrating the potential impact of terahertz imaging for in vivo cancer detection.

Date Published: 28 April 2015
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9362, Terahertz, RF, Millimeter, and Submillimeter-Wave Technology and Applications VIII, 93620D (28 April 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2079417

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9362:
Terahertz, RF, Millimeter, and Submillimeter-Wave Technology and Applications VIII
Laurence P. Sadwick; Tianxin Yang, Editor(s)