Characterization of healthy and nonmelanoma-induced mouse utilizing the Stokes–Mueller decomposition

Abstract. Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers, including melanoma and nonmelanoma cancer. Melanoma can be easily detected by the observation of abnormal moles, but nonmelanoma signs and symptoms are not apparent in the early stages. We use the Stokes–Mueller matrix decomposition method to detect nonmelanoma at the early stage by decomposing the characteristics of polarized light interacting with normal and cancerous tissues. With this decomposition method, we extract nine optical parameters from biological tissues, namely the LB orientation angle (α), the LB phase retardance (β), the CB optical rotation angle (γ), the LD orientation angle (θd), the linear dichroism (D), the circular dichroism (R), the degrees of linear depolarization (e1 and e2), the degree of circular depolarization (e3), and the depolarization index (Δ). The healthy skin and the induced nonmelanoma skin cancer of mice are analyzed and compared based on their optical parameters. We find distinctive ranges of values for normal skin tissue and nonmelanoma skin cancer, in which β and D in cancerous tissue are larger and nonmelanoma skin becomes less depolarized. This research creates an innovative solid foundation for the diagnosis of skin cancer in the future.