Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: It has been shown that the stroma surrounding the tumour can play an important role in cancer behaviour and response to therapy. Polarimetry may be a suitable technique for this application because collagen, a fibrous component of stroma, is anisotropic and interacts strongly with polarized light. Polarimetry is also attractive because it is rapid, widefield, and non-ionizing. We proposed a novel and relatively simple methodology of polarized light microscopy to image thin, unstained histology slides using only crossed linear polarizers. The brightness of birefringent structures under crossed polarizers is dependent on the relative orientation of the structures and the polarizers. By imaging slides at various orientations, we can obtain retardance and fast axis orientation images, important measures of tissue biophysics. From images acquired, morphological features describing the density and alignment of the stroma within the tumour microenvironment are extracted to be used in a future breast cancer prognostication tool.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Jared Westreich
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3108567760