Symmetric decomposition of Mueller matrices reveals a new parametric space for polarimetric assistance in colon cancer histopathology

Tissue polarimetry could be identified as a complementary optical and non-invasive technique to assist the gold standard histopathology analysis of tissue. In general, polarimetric diagnostics is based on tracing different polarimetric responses (including light depolarization) in tissue zones with structure altered by the benign and pre/cancerous formations. In this manuscript, both healthy and malignant tissue zones of a thick formalin-fixed colon specimen were used for Mueller matrix measurements. Additionally, two more Mueller matrices from Monte Carlo simulation and tissue mimicking phantom were also evaluated, in order to assess polarimetric characterization and modeling of turbid media. Symmetric decomposition algorithm of Mueller matrices developed in house was adopted to extract both polarization and depolarization properties, encoded in the Mueller matrix elements. The decomposition products allowed to reveal important information about the internal tissue structure and morphology. The depolarization and polarization parameters were found to follow the particular trends that depend on a choice of parametric space.