Quantitative detection of breast ductal carcinoma tissues at different progression stages using Mueller matrix microscope

Abstract

Polarization imaging is regarded as a promising technique for probing the microstructures, especially the anisotropic fibrous components of tissues. Among the available polarimetric techniques, Mueller matrix imaging has many distinctive advantages. Recently, we have developed a Mueller matrix microscope by adding the polarization state generator and analyzer to a commercial transmission-light microscope, and applied it to differentiate human liver and cervical cancerous tissues with fibrosis. Here we apply the Mueller matrix microscope for quantitative detection of human breast ductal carcinoma, which is a primary form of breast cancers, at different stages. The Mueller matrix polar decomposition (MMPD) and Mueller matrix transformation (MMT) parameters of the breast ductal tissues in different regions at in situ and invasive stages are calculated and analyzed. For more comparisons, Monte Carlo simulations based on the sphere-birefringence model are also carried out. The experimental and simulated results indicate that the Mueller matrix microscope and the polarization parameters can facilitate the quantitative detection of breast ductal carcinoma tissues at different stages.