Prospects of terahertz technology in diagnosis of human brain tumors – A review

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) waves feature high sensitivity to the content and state of water in biological tissues. Therefore, during the past decades, THz technology has attracted significant attention in biophotonics, including diagnosis of malignant and benign neoplasms with different nosologies and localizations. The pathophysiological features of malignant tumors of the central nervous system determine appearance of several morphological phenomena, such as increased vascularity, edema, necrosis. These phenomena cause water content increase in the studied tissues and, thus, open new ways for the THz technology applications in the intraoperative neurodiagnosis, including delineation of tumor margins. This research area is rather novel and, despite the small amount of accumulated research material, is undoubtedly extremely promising for creation of new diagnostic approaches. In this review, available results in the considered exciting branch of THz technology are summarized, and potential projections of this topic into the future are constructed.