Imaging of ex vivo nonmelanoma skin cancers in the optical and terahertz spectral regions

With approximately 3.5 million cases diagnosed each year, nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common form of cancer. NMSC results in about 3000 deaths each year and the cost of treatments is estimated to exceed $ 600 million each year [1]. The most effective form of NMSC treatment is Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS) which involves removing cancer layer by layer while simultaneously processing excised tissue for frozen H&E histopathology to map out the cancerous regions. MMS has a success rate of 95% and is the only technique that examines entire surgical margin allowing for complete histological assessment during surgery [2–4]. However MMS is time consuming, labour intensive and costly. Thus, an in vivo skin cancer imaging technique could provide a viable alternative to the current methods of intraoperative visualization of cancer margins. Some techniques that are currently under investigation for non-invasive mapping of skin cancers include reflectance confocal microscopy [5], Raman