Aims Many technological advances have been made to optimize the detection of colorectal
cancer lesions. Research has shown that the electromagnetic properties of healthy
and cancerous tissues differ in many biological tissues. We aim at analyzing these
differences between healthy and pathological colon tissues gathered from colonoscopy
biopsies.
Methods The dielectric constant and the conductivity of healthy and pathological colorectal
samples of 70 patients were analyzed using the open-ended coaxial technique and were
later correlated with their pathology results. Since these properties depend on multiple
factors like tissue’s temperature, system calibration and the patient itself, polyps
were analyzed by computing the difference between the healthy and the pathological
samples within each patient. Measurements were performed on adenocarcinomas (CRC),
adenomas without dysplasia, adenomas with low-grade dysplasia, adenomas with high-grade
dysplasia, hyperplastic and hamartomatous polyps.
Results The differences obtained in dielectric constant between CRC and healthy pairs are
higher than in the rest of pathologies. Within the frequency region where larger differences
appear, the median of this difference is 4.8 units. Differences in conductivity are
lower, having a median of 2 units. By selecting a threshold in the difference of dielectric
constant that maximizes the diagnostic capability of CRC, the system showed a sensitivity
of 75% and a specificity of 89% for detecting this disease.
Conclusions Results have shown that measurements of electromagnetic properties could aid in the
detection of colorectal pathologies. The variability of the results is quite large,
and hence the system should be improved prior to a potential implementation.
