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Updated: May 20, 2026
Terahertz Imaging and Characterization Protocol for Freshly Excised Breast Cancer Tumors
Published on: April 5, 2020
The Cole relaxation frequency as a parameter to identify cancer in breast tissue
W D Gregory1, J J Marx, C W Gregory
1College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA. wdguwm@aol.com
Purpose:
To correlate the Cole relaxation frequencies obtained from measurements of the electrical properties of breast tissue to the presence or absence of cancer.
Methods:
Four-lead impedance measurements were obtained on ex vivo specimens extracted during surgery from 187 volunteer patients. Data were acquired with a commercial Solartron impedance bridge employing 4-lead Ag-AgCl or blackened platinum (BPt) electrodes at frequencies logarithmically spaced from 1 Hz to 3.2 × 10(7) Hz utilizing 6-10 frequencies per decade. The Cole frequencies obtained from these measurements were correlated with the tissue health status (cancer or noncancer) obtained from histological analysis of the specimens.
Results:
Analysis of the impedance measurements showed that the Cole relaxation frequencies correlated to the presence or absence of cancer in the examined tissue with a sensitivity up to 100% (95% CI, 99%-100%) and a specificity up to 85% (95% CI, 79%-91%) based on the ROC curve of the data with the Cole frequency as the classifier.
Conclusions:
The results show that the Cole frequency alone is a viable classifier for malignant breast anomalies. Results of the current work are consistent with recent bioimpedance measurements on single cell and cell suspension breast cell lines.
