BreastLight Apparatus Performance in Detection of Breast Masses Depends on Mass Size

Abstract

Background: Accurate measurement of breast mass size is fundamental for treatment planning. We evaluated performance of BreastLight apparatus in detection breast of masses with this in mind. Materials and Methods: From July 2011 to September 2013, a total of 500 women referred to mammography unit in Yazd, Iran for screening were recruited to this study. Performance of BreastLight in detection breast masses regard their sizeing, measured with clinical breast examination (CBE), mammography and sonography, was assessed. Sonographic and mammography examinations were performed according to breast density among women in two groups of women younger (n=105) and older (n=395) than 30 years. Size correlations were performed using Spearman rho analysis. Differences between mass size as assessed with the different methods (mammography, sonography, and clinical examination) and the BreastLight detection were analyzed using Χ 2 -trend test. Results: Performance of the BreastLight in detection of lesions smaller than or equal to 1 cm assessed by CBE, mammography and sonography was 4.4%,7.7% and 12.5% and for masses larger than 4 cm was 65%, 100% and 57.1%, respectively. The performance of BreastLight in detection was significantly increased with larger masses (p<0.001). Conclusions: We conclude that clinical measurement of breast cancer size is as accurate as that from mammography or ultrasound. Accuracy can be improved by the use of a simple formula of both clinical and mammographic measurements.

Alternative modalities being promoted for breast screening

“…[3] Evaluation of 310 patients between 2012 and 2013 in Cairo reported much better results with the breast light, with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and total accuracy of 93.0%, 73.7%, 91.4%, 77.8% and 88.2%, respectively. [4] Shiryazdi et al [5] concluded in another Iranian study that the performance of the breast light in detection of lesions ≤1 cm assessed by CBE, mammography and sonography was 4.4%, 7.7% and 12.5%, respectively, and for masses >4 cm, 65%, 100% and 57.1%. [5] The performance of the breast light in detection was significantly increased with larger masses (p<0.001), which once again challenges the notion that this device can be used as a screening tool equivalent to mammography.…”

“…[4] Shiryazdi et al [5] concluded in another Iranian study that the performance of the breast light in detection of lesions ≤1 cm assessed by CBE, mammography and sonography was 4.4%, 7.7% and 12.5%, respectively, and for masses >4 cm, 65%, 100% and 57.1%. [5] The performance of the breast light in detection was significantly increased with larger masses (p<0.001), which once again challenges the notion that this device can be used as a screening tool equivalent to mammography. The most recent publication found was in 2015 in the Indian Journal of Cancer, where only 35.8% of lesions that were detected by mammography were detected by the breast light.…”

Optical spectroscopy-based imaging techniques for the diagnosis of breast cancer: A novel approach

“…A tool that is portable and battery operated will facilitate its use in remote locations in the developed world as well as in low and middle-income countries. [28,[32][33][34][35]37] The complete wish-list of the requirements of a practical tool for the rapid diagnosis of breast cancer is shown in Table 1.…”

“…Transillumination Imaging has been studied extensively for breast cancer screening in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Ghana. [28,29,[31][32][33][34][35] While DOI is still lab-based, it is touted to be a promising technique to be used for breast cancer screening in the future. [43,80] The DOI system is classified as parallel plate geometry, bed-based, and handheld probe techniques, based on the arrangement of the source and detector.…”

“…Transillumination imaging has been studied using a commercial tool such as Breastlight [29,30] and has been found to have varying sensitivities between 60% and 93% for breast cancer detection, primarily due to the dependency on the skill of the clinician to visually analyze the transillumination images. [28,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Mehnati et al [37] and Edge et al [38] critically review the transillumination imaging for breast screening and recommended performing more clinical trials.…”