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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Differential light scattering spectroscopy measurements for detecting and imaging cancer

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Optical spectroscopy show great promise for diagnosing the earliest stages of cancer. Light scattering spectroscopy (LSS), the study of single elastic backscattering as a function of wavelength and angle, can detect subcellular structural changes in early cancer. We have developed two novel differential light scattering spectroscopy techniques, space differential LSS (SD/LSS) and b-angle differential LSS (/LSS), for detecting the single backscattering signal from a reflectance spectrum dominated by multiple scattering and diffuse reflectance. SD/LSS exploits the penetration abilities of diffuse reflectance while /LSS exploits the angular asymmetry of single backscattering from large particles. O/LSS has the added advantage of being able to isolate single backscattering specifically from scatterers much larger than the wavelength. We implement /LSS to interrogate colon tissue and to develop diagnostic algorithms based on Mie theory. The results show great promise for diagnosing cancer. Instrumentation is being developed to implement SD/LSS and /LSS together in a wide area imaging system with the goal of studying and detecting cancer at its earliest stages in vivo and in real time. The system has been validated with controlled tissue phantoms and will soon be ready for clinical studies.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2006

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Lau, Condon
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Michael Feld and Peter So.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35666
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35666

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Lau, Condon. Differential light scattering spectroscopy measurements for detecting and imaging cancer. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35666