Abstract

We have measured fluorescence kinetics from benign tumor tissues and cancerous human breast tissues. The samples were excited with the third-harmonic, 353 nm, 5 ps pulse of a mode-locked Nd glass laser with 30 mJ of energy. We measured the fluorescence lifetimes at different wavelengths using a streak camera with 10 ps resolution. The results display double-exponential fluorescence decay profiles. It appears that the fast component of the decay in the malignant tumors is faster (û ps) than that of the benign tumors (200 ps). The slow component of the decay from malignant tumors was slower (2.4 ns) than that of the benign tumors ( ns). The faster fast component of malignant tumor implies more nonradiative processes. These preliminary results indicate that benign tumors can be distinguished from malignant tumors.

© 1990 Optical Society of America