Quantitative phase microscopy spatial signatures of cancer cells.

We present cytometric classification of live healthy and cancerous cells by using the spatial morphological and textural information found in the label-free quantitative phase images of the cells. We compare both healthy cells to primary tumor cells and primary tumor cells to metastatic cancer cells, where tumor biopsies and normal tissues were isolated from the same individuals. To mimic analysis of liquid biopsies by flow cytometry, the cells were imaged while unattached to the substrate.