Optical imaging for breast cancer prescreening

Abstract

Breast cancer prescreening is carried out prior to the gold standard screening using X-ray mammography and/or ultrasound. Prescreening is typically carried out using clinical breast examination (CBE) or self-breast examinations (SBEs). Since CBE and SBE have high false-positive rates, there is a need for a low-cost, noninvasive, non-radiative, and portable imaging modality that can be used as a prescreening tool to complement CBE/SBE. This review focuses on the various hand-held optical imaging devices that have been developed and applied toward early-stage breast cancer detection or as a prescreening tool via phantom, in vivo, and breast cancer imaging studies. Apart from the various optical devices developed by different research groups, a wide-field fiber-free near-infrared optical scanner has been developed for transillumination-based breast imaging in our Optical Imaging Laboratory. Preliminary in vivo studies on normal breast tissues, with absorption-contrasted targets placed in the intramammary fold, detected targets as deep as 8.8 cm. Future work involves in vivo imaging studies on breast cancer subjects and comparison with the gold standard X-ray mammography approach.

Primary and secondary prevention of breast cancer

“…It may also help in thoroughly evaluating the local disease stage and reaction to treatment, as well being used to conduct biopsy under MMG control [47]. This imaging method decreases death risk by 15-20%, which proves these observations [48].…”

“…Its disadvantage is low specificity [43]. USG sensitivity in detecting neoplastic lesions amounts to only 36% [48]. Ultrasonography allows differentiation between cystic lesions and solid lesions, and is useful in the evaluation of lesions in the pre-operative period and during the followup period, after termination of the treatment process.…”

“…However, MRI is a more invasive examination compared to MMG since it is conducted using an intravenous contrast agent, although this agent is less sensitizing than that administered during computed tomography (CT) [43]. MR sensitivity amounts to 88.1% [48]. Its advantage is incredibly precise imaging of soft tissues, which cannot be completed using other methods [43].…”

“…Its advantage is incredibly precise imaging of soft tissues, which cannot be completed using other methods [43]. The presence of gene mutation among young women is an indication to carry out diagnosis by means of MR [48] (BRCA1, BRCA2) [51]. Breast examination using this method does not always allow differentiation between a malignant lesion and a benign lesion (e.g.…”

“…It is a cheap method, generally available and does not demand any complex technical training [52], and can be performed in the home environment [48]. BSE allows woman to learn about proper breast structure which helps later detect untypical lesions in mammary gland tissue [52].…”