Mesoscopic Light Localization and Inverse Participation Ratio Analysis of Tissue Structural Disorder for Optical Cancer Detection

Abstract

We introduce a mesoscopic physics-based framework that transforms conventional transmission optical micrographs into quantitative maps of tissue structural heterogeneity using the Inverse Participation Ratio (IPR). For the first time, to our knowledge, IPR-based light-localization analysis is applied to cancer tissue imaging to quantify nano- to submicron-scale structural alterations through spatial fluctuations in tissue mass density or refractive index. Unlike conventional morphology-based assessment, this physics-driven approach provides objective structural biomarkers from label-free or routinely stained tissue images. The method establishes a scalable, reproducible platform for quantitative computational pathology and enhanced cancer diagnosis by integrating mesoscopic optical physics with standard optical microscopy.