Terahertz Imaging of Breast Cancer using Human and Animal Models

In this work, we demonstrate the comparison between the terahertz imaging of breast cancer tumors obtained from human as well as laboratory animal models. Three different animal models are presented in this work— xenograft mice, transgenic mice, and Sprague Dawley rats. The reflection mode terahertz imaging technique is used for imaging freshly excised breast cancer tumors. The microscopic imaging on the hematoxylin and eosin pathology slides of the corresponding tumors is performed for further comparison with obtained terahertz images as well as to draw the comparison between different tumor types with respect to the presence of certain tissue types in the tumor. THz imaging and pathology imaging results show more similarities between human tumors and Sprague Dawley rat model tumors than the xenograft and transgenic mice tumors.