Terahertz pulsed imaging of dehydrated human breast cancer samples

In this work, we examine the validation and the test-retest reliability of the terahertz (THz) image contrasts between healthy and cancerous regions in dehydrated human breast cancer samples mounted on Teflon plates. We used a newly acquired THz time-domain spectrometer to record THz reflection impulse responses of these samples during two sessions, one week apart. The validation was carried out using histopathological images. The test-retest reliability was assessed by comparing the contrasts obtained from both sessions. The results show that the THz image contrasts (1) are highly correlated with the associated histopathological results in samples having a good adhesion to Teflon plates, and (2) can be reliably obtained in a controlled environment.