Terahertz Imaging of Transgenic Murine Breast Cancer Tumors

This work applies terahertz imaging technology to examine the contrast between malignant and healthy tissue in excised breast cancer tumors from transgenic mice. Multifocal breast adenocarcinoma tumors are spontaneously generated in the mice and cut out for THz reflection imaging. Following imaging of the freshly excised tumors, samples are sent for pathology assessment at the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue prepared in histopathology lab is then imaged for additional correlation with pathology. The results show close correlation of THz imaging of fixed tissue to pathology and reasonable results with some challenges for the fresh tissue.