Real-time Capacity Reactance-based Innovative Technology for Detecting Malignant Cells: An Experimental...

Combined prompt cancer diagnosis and treatment is a key pursuit of the scientific community. Since the 20^th century, a variety of early cancer detection methods (screening tests) have been developed. Histopathological examination of cancerous tissues is the "gold standard" in establishing the final diagnosis, as well as documenting the adequacy of the therapeutic intervention, although unable to detect neoplastic/malignant cells in real-time. In the current experimental research, we present a novel, innovative medical diagnostic device and demonstrate its potential utilization as a screening test for the early detection of neoplastic/malignant lesions in real-time.

A group of 215 patients were enrolled in the study. The innovative medical diagnostic device was used to collect a sufficient number of measurements from head and neck neoplastic -including skin - lesions. Using special software algorithms, the cell membrane was simulated with an equivalent electric circuit. The excitation response of the biological tissues was calculated by applying a dielectric spectroscopy method. The presence of neoplastic cells was detected as a significantly increased contribution of the capacitive reactance to the total impedance of the tissues under examination (θ angle).

The θ angle extracted measurements were compared to the respective histopathologic reports. θ angle values were found to be statistically different between normal, non-neoplastic, and malignant tissues (p<0.001).

In terms of physics, the unknown complex impedance of the tissue under assessment as well as the capacitive reactance can be experimentally measured and therefore cancerous cells can be distinguished from healthy cells by the changes in the measured capacity reactance contribution (θ angle differences). The described innovative medical device leads reliable results for the early detection of neoplastic/malignant cells in real-time.