Colon Cancer Detection by Designing and Analytical Evaluation of a Water-Based THz Metamaterial Perfect Absorber

Abstract

Colon Cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States. A large part of the reason the number of fatalities is so high is late detection as when detected in the early stages of development 9 out of 10 cases of colon cancer are non-fatal 5 years after detection. Currently the main method of colon cancer detection are colonoscopies which are highly invasive and time intensive procedures. In this work we propose a new diagnostic technique for colon cancer using an InSb based device that works by a change in the spectral response of the metamaterial when exposed to electromagnetic waves in the terahertz regime and combined with cancerous colon tissue as compared to the response when combined with healthy colon tissue. We attribute this change in spectral response is due to the differing optical properties of the healthy and cancerous colon tissue as well as the creation of surface plasmon polaritons within our device.