Pulsed Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy for Evaluating Treatment Efficacy: Initial Validation in Monitoring Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly invasive malignancy with limited curative effectiveness. Here, we report the viability of using pulsed Terahertz (THz) time domain spectroscopy (THz TDS) to monitor the efficacy of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) in treating PDAC in murine models. Our study shows that THz imaging can provide reliable and reproducible results to differentiate the changes in untreated and SBRT-treated PDAC tissue using THz refractive index and absorption coefficient as mapping parameters with statistical significance. Hence the study highlights that pulsed THz-TDS can be used as a technique to monitor tumor responses to immunotherapy, providing a comprehensive assessment of the tumor's reaction to the treatment.