Traditional methods for detecting skin cancers including high-frequency technologies like CT and PET scans, and X-rays for medical diagnostics often involve costly, time-consuming and invasive procedures. THz technology has lower photon energy and doesn’t ionize tissue. Also, current biomarker detection methods struggle to distinguish migrating cells and cancer tissue borders without complex preprocessing. Histologists can visually identify tumors, but without reliable biomarker staining, assessing tumor invasion is difficult. Such a Terahertz biosensor can highly assist histologists.
The designed biosensor offers a non-invasive and efficient solution. By leveraging high Q-factor electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-like resonances, the biosensor can differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells with accuracy.
The key innovation lies in the design of the THz metasurface, featuring asymmetric resonators on an ultra-thin and flexible dielectric substrate. This unique configuration minimizes radiation losses and enhances sensitivity, allowing for the detection of subtle differences in cell characteristics.
In experimental tests, the biosensor demonstrated exceptional performance. By analyzing changes in resonance frequency, transmission magnitude, and full width at half maximum (FWHM), researchers achieved a theoretical sensitivity of 550 GHz/RIU. Moreover, when tested on 3D collagen gel models mimicking human skin, the biosensor accurately distinguished between normal keratinocytes and BCC cells, and detected the higher tumor cell concentrations.
These results promise to streamline skin cancer screening, offering a fast, affordable, and simple alternative to existing methods and also can be utilized as an efficient complementary approach by the histologists. With further development and refinement, this technology could have far-reaching implications for early cancer detection, potentially saving countless lives worldwide.