The dielectric properties of cancerous tissues in a nude mouse xenograft model.

The dielectric properties of various cancers, namely brain tumor, breast cancer, gastric carcinoma, and colon cancer, were measured in the frequency range of 500 MHz to 5 GHz. Cancers were cultivated applying the xenograft model of growing human cancerous tissues using the specific pathogen free, homo inbred mouse (a nude mouse). The complex permittivity was measured using an open-ended coaxial probe (HP85070B) and a computer controlled network analyzer (HP8510C). For the measurement of the dielectric properties, a total of 58 xenografted specimens was used. The results showed that measured values of complex permittivity for all four cancerous tissues were similar, with little variations over the frequency range used. It might be agreed that components and characteristics of different cancerous tissues would be similar despite their different occurrences in the human body. It is necessary to investigate this result further. 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.