Near-infrared parameters extraction: A potential method to detect skin cancer

The wavelength-dependent absorption coefficients can be used to analyse optical properties of human skin. Existing absorption models for narrow ranges in the visible and near infrared are insufficient to simultaneously incorporate the spectral contrast produced by differences in chromophores, water and lipid content of skin tissue into skin cancer detection. In the broad range up to 1600 nm, recent analysis approaches for absorption spectra do not consistently provide significant differences between healthy and cancerous skins. We propose an absorption model to fit the absorption coefficient spectra of skin samples over the range from 400 nm to 1600 nm and an advanced algorithm to find the optimal estimation. The extracted parameters of this model are analysed by a statistical t-test. The test results demonstrate the significant differences between all pairs of tumour-normal skin. Therefore, our approach has strong potential for early skin cancer detection using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). © 2013 IEEE