The Cole Relaxation Frequency as a Parameter to Identify Cancer in Lung Tissue: Preliminary Animal and Ex Vivo Patient Studies (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths, and diagnosis remains challenging. Lung cancer starts as small nodules; early and accurate diagnosis allows timely surgical resection of malignant nodules while avoiding unnecessary surgery in patients with benign nodules. The Cole Relaxation Frequency (CRF) is a derived electrical bioimpedance signature, which may be utilized to distinguish cancerous tissues from normal tissues. Here we show that CRF allows for diagnosis of cancer in human subjects, based on evaluation of 60 specimens obtained from 30 patients. We observed clear discrimination of CRF values in tumor and distant normal tissues, resulting in a high degree of sensitivity (97%) and specificity (87%) in cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, we tested 20 xenograft small animal model specimens, observing a similar separation of CRF values as in the human in-vivo measurements. We also obtained CRF measurements in pressurized and unpressurized lungs by implanting tumors into ex-vivo porcine lungs. CRF measurements align with previous tests in human and small animal models.