Dielectric Contrast Assessment for Skin Cancer Detection in the Terahertz Band

In the field of biomedical imaging, Terahertz waves offer significant advantages, such as non-ionizing radiation, excellent spatial and temporal resolution, and compact instrumentation size. Although the high absorption of water at these frequencies limits the penetration into biological tissues, it also serves as a source of contrast between healthy and pathological states, as the latter typically exhibit increased vascularization and, consequently, higher water content. This study addresses the current landscape in which, despite the clinical application of Terahertz waves being far from routine practice due to unresolved challenges, there is a significant focus on skin diseases. The goal of this work is to identify a measurable and distinguishable contrast between healthy and pathological states, in the frequency band 0.4-1.6 THz, using dielectric property measures of healthy skin and basal cell carcinoma, along with an analytical model grounded in transmission line theory.