The most comprehensive description of light scattering was obtained by simultaneous measurement of its spectral, angular, azimuthal, and polarization characteristics. In studies with physical tissue models consisting of aqueous suspensions of microspheres, we showed that this comprehensive information reveals the properties of the internal structure of the samples. In the studies with a rodent model of colon carcinogenesis, we demonstrated the feasibility of detecting slight alterations of tissue micro-architecture by recording the multi-dimensional data characterizing tissue light scattering. We showed for the first time that such light scattering "fingerprinting" can be used to detect changes in tissue micro-architecture even at the earliest pre-dysplastic stages of carcinogenesis, much earlier than currently known histological, molecular, or genetic markers.

Date Published: 8 October 2003
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 5141, Diagnostic Optical Spectroscopy in Biomedicine II, (8 October 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.500880

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5141:
Diagnostic Optical Spectroscopy in Biomedicine II
Georges A. Wagnieres, Editor(s)