Biomedical applications of enhanced backscattering spectroscopy

Enhanced Backscattering Spectroscopy enables minimally invasive measurement of optical properties of biological tissues by characterizing the shape of backscattered light in both angle and spectrum. The peak in scattering intensity in the retroreflection direction depends on the scattering properties of a random medium including mean free path, anisotropy, and even higher order characteristics such as mass fractal dimension. These properties are shown to be significant markers of risk in gastrointestinal cancers. Miniaturization of the technology with development of a fiber optic probe and supporting instrumentation enables in vivo clinical studies of risk stratification.