Pilot study of freshly excised breast tissue response in the 300-600 GHz range

The failure to accurately define tumor margins during breast conserving surgery (BCS) results in a 20% re-excision rate. The present paper reports the investigation to evaluate the potential of terahertz imaging for breast tissue recognition within the under-explored 300 - 600 GHz range. Such a frequency window matches new BiCMOS technology capabilities and thus opens up the opportunity for near-field terahertz imaging using these devices. To assess the efficacy of this frequency band, data from 16 freshly excised breast tissue samples were collected and analyzed directly after excision. Complex refractive indices have been extracted over the as-mentioned frequency band, and amplitude frequency images show some contrast between tissue types. Principal component analysis (PCA) has also been applied to the data in an attempt to automate tissue classification. Our observations suggest that the dielectric response could potentially provide contrast for breast tissue recognition within the 300 - 600 GHz range. These results open the way for silicon-based terahertz subwavelength near field imager design, efficient up to 600 GHz to address ex vivo life-science applications.