Abstract

The most comprehensive description of light scattering was obtained by simultaneous measurement of its spectral, angular, azimuthal, and polarization characteristics. In studies with physical tissue models consisting of aqueous suspensions of microspheres, we showed that this comprehensive information reveals the properties of the internal structure of the samples. In the studies with a rodent model of colon carcinogenesis, we demonstrated the feasibility of detecting slight alterations of tissue micro-architecture by recording the multi-dimensional data characterizing tissue light scattering. We showed for the first time that such light scattering ”fingerprinting” can be used to detect changes in tissue micro-architecture even at the earliest pre-dysplastic stages of carcinogenesis, much earlier than currently known histological, molecular, or genetic markers.

© 2003 SPIE