Optical speckle angular correlation and fractal property of a composite of cancer/normal cell layers with application for laboratory monitoring of drug efficacy

Abstract

Breast cancer cells and normal cells were grown on glass substrates and investigated via laser generated speckles. The optical speckle pattern of a layer was investigated via angular correlation and fractal dimension analysis. A porous silicate slab with various water contents was used as calibration. The angular correlation and its associated Fourier transform results were consistent with the property of the cells. The speckle intensity data can be treated as a random series and the Higuchi method was used to explore the fractal property of the random series. The fractal dimension results differentiated the cancer cells (fractal dimension about 1.5) from the normal cells (fractal dimension about 1.8). The Fourier transformed series showed fractal dimension results consistent with cell functions. A composite of breast cancer/normal cell matrix was built with cancer cell layers embedded within normal cell layers. The optical speckle pattern of a composite was investigated and computer modeling was used to extract the embedded cancer cell fractal dimension information. The measurement of the efficacy of a drug was simulated with the monitoring of the effect of added chemicals in the growth media. Laboratory optical speckle pattern monitoring of the effect of added chemicals was discussed. The extension for early cancer detection in mammography was also discussed and an example of the application of the anisotropic spatial variation of the fractal dimension via the Higuchi fractal method was presented.