We describe azimuthal light scattering spectroscopy (phi/LSS), a novel technique for assessing epithelial-cell nuclear morphology. The difference between the spectra measured at azimuthal angles (phi)(velence)0 deg and (phi)(velence)90 deg preferentially isolates the single backscattering contribution due to large (approx10 (mu)m) structures such as epithelial cell nuclei by discriminating against scattering from smaller organelles and diffusive background. We demonstrate the feasibility of using phi/LSS for cancer detection by showing that spectra from cancerous colon tissue exhibit significantly greater azimuthal asymmetry than spectra from normal colonic tissues.
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