Characterization of Non-melanoma Skin Cancer Utilizing the Optical Polarizing System

Abstract

Defining the true of skin pathologies non-invasively is still an unsolved problem for the dermatology community. In this study, a new noninvasive method to visualize skin pathologies using polarized light imaging is discussed. This technology will assist doctors as well as dermatologists in making a quick assessment of skin pathologies. Researching on the propagation of polarized light in randomly scattering media have been investigated as a new and a huge potential methodology for disease early detection. Accordingly, a fundamental understanding of how polarized light propagates through tissue is essential for the development clinically useful optical diagnostic systems because of its practical application, especially in non-invasive diagnosis. The purpose of this research concentrated on the interaction of polarized light and biological tissues utilizing Mueller matrix and Stokes parameter description for extracting nine optical parameters such as linear birefringence (LB), linear dichroism (LD), circular birefringence (CB), circular dichroism (CD), linear depolarization (L-Dep), and circular depolarization (C-Dep) properties. The samples of the healthy skin and the non-melanoma skin cancer extracted from mouse were analyzed and compared their effective optical characterization. The experimental results illustrated that the LB and LD of the disease samples tend to be larger than the standard samples, creating an innovating solid foundation for the diagnosis of skin cancer in the future.