Diffusion optical spectroscopy of cancerous and normal prostate tissues in time-resolved and frequency domain

Abstract

It is well-known that light transport can be well described using Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. In biological tissue, the scattering particles cause the interaction of scattered waves from neighboring particles. Since such interaction cannot be ignored, multiple scattering occurs. The theoretical solution of multiple scattering is complicated. A suitable description is that the wavelike behavior of light is ignored and the transport of an individual photon is considered to be absorbed or scattered. This is known as the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) theory. Analytical solutions to the RTE that explicitly describes photon migration can be obtained by introducing some proper approximations. One of the most popular models used in the field of tissue optics is the Diffusion Approximation (DA). In this study, we report on the results of our initial study of optical properties of ex vivo normal and cancerous prostate tissues and how tissue parameters affect the near infrared light transporting in the two types of tissues. The time-resolved transport of light is simulated as an impulse isotropic point source of energy within a homogeneous unbounded medium with different absorption and scattering properties of cancerous and normal prostate tissues. Light source is also modulated sinusoidally to yield a varied fluence rate in frequency domain at a distant observation point within the cancerous and normal prostate tissues. Due to difference of the absorption and scattering coefficients between cancerous and normal tissues, the expansion of light pulse, intensity, phase are found to be different.