Detection of colon cancer stages via fractal dimension analysis of optical transmission imaging of tissue microarrays (TMA)

At epidemic proportions worldwide, one in four persons now has cancer, and this statistic will change to one in two persons in near future. An important step in the fight against cancer is its early and accurate detection. This calls for affordable, quick and easy diagnostic methods. Standard pathological detection of cancer involves microscopic examination of morphological changes using stained biopsy samples, but this method is prone to human error and misdiagnosis. A tissue is a spatially heterogeneous medium with fractal properties owing to self-similarity in mass distribution. With the progress of cancer, this tissue heterogeneity changes owing to more mass accumulation and rearrangement of intracellular macromolecules like DNA, RNA, and lipids. Recently, commercially available tissue microarray (TMA) samples have gained significant attention in research studies, as the array of numerous tissue samples of different cases of a disease on a glass slide allows ease of conducting comprehensive studies. The present study uses optical transmission imaging to analyze the fractal dimension of colon TMA samples of 5 mu m thickness and 1.5 mm diameter to correctly distinguish different stages of colon cancer. Results of this specialized analysis are also supported by entropy and spatial correlation length analysis. The application of this method of cancer diagnostics is discussed.