Label-Free Observation of Micrometric Inhomogeneity of Human Breast Cancer Cell Density Using Terahertz Near-Field Microscopy

Terahertz-light imaging is attracting great attention as a new approach in non-invasive/non-staining biopsy of cancerous tissues. Positively, terahertz light has been shown to be sensitive to the cell density, the hydration content, and the chemical composition of biological samples. However, the spatial resolution of terahertz imaging is typically limited to several millimeters, making it difficult to apply the technology to image biological tissues which have sub-terahertz-wavelength-scale inhomogeneity. For overcoming the resolution, we have recently developed a terahertz near-field microscope with a spatial resolution of 10 µm, named scanning point terahertz source (SPoTS) microscope. In contrast to conventional far-field terahertz techniques, this microscope features the near-field interactions between samples and point terahertz sources on a sub-terahertz-wavelength scale. Herein, to evaluate the usefulness of terahertz imaging in cancer tissue biopsy in greater detail, we performed terahertz near-field imaging of a paraffin-embedded human-breast-cancer section having sub-terahertz-wavelength-scale inhomogeneity of the cancer cell density using the SPoTS microscope. The observed terahertz images successfully visualized local (~250 µm) inhomogeneities of the cell density in breast invasive ductal carcinoma. These results may bypass the terahertz limitation in terms of spatial resolution and may further motivate the application of terahertz light to cancer tissue biopsy.