Towards a Portable Platform Integrated With Multispectral Noncontact Probes for Delineating Normal and Breast Cancer Tissue Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Currently, the confirmation of diagnosis of breast cancer is made by microscopic examination of an ultra-thin slice of a needle biopsy specimen. This slice is conventionally formalinfixed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and visually examined under a light microscope. This process is labor-intensive and requires highly skilled doctors (pathologists). In this paper, we report a novel tool based on near-infrared spectroscopy (Spectral-IRDx) which is a portable, non-contact, and cost-effective system and could provide a rapid and accurate diagnosis of cancer. The Spectral-IRDx tool performs absorption spectroscopy at nearinfrared (NIR) wavelengths of 850 nm, 935 nm, and 1060 nm. We measure normalized detected voltage (Vdn) with the tool in 10 deparaffinized breast biopsy tissue samples, 5 of which were cancer (C) and 5 were normal (N) tissues. The difference in Vdn at 935 nm and 1060 nm between cancer and normal tissues is statistically significant with p-values of 0.0038 and 0.0022 respectively. Absorption contrast factor (N/C) of 1.303, 1.551, and 1.45 are observed for 850 nm, 935 nm, and 1060 nm respectively. The volume fraction contrast (N/C) of lipids and collagens are reported as 1.28 and 1.10 respectively. Higher absorption contrast factor (N/C) and volume fraction contrast (N/C) signifies higher concentration of lipids in normal tissues as compared to cancerous tissues, a basis for delineation. These preliminary results support the envisioned concept for non-invasive and non-carcinogenic NIR-based breast cancer diagnostic platform, which will be tested using a larger number of samples.

Toward the development of portable light emitting diode‐based polarization spectroscopy tools for breast cancer diagnosis

“…The effect on the degree of polarization due to this slight variation of the thickness (± 0.013 mm) is neglected in our analysis. In addition to the polarization measurements, the histopathology assessment was performed on each tissue sample with the help of a pathologist to confirm the diagnosis [4, 39]. We assume that the variation in bulk optical properties of the tissue samples because of the fixation process is small and neglected in this work.…”

“…The acceptance angle and thickness of the linear polarizer film were ±30° and 0.13 mm, respectively. The peak operating wavelength of the LED was selected to be 850 and 940 nm [43] and sensitive to different chromophores of the breast tissues, that is, collagen [44] and lipids [39]. The system was enclosed within an absorptive material to mitigate the effect of ambient light on the polarization measurements and improve the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR).…”

Thermo‐optic measurements and their inter‐dependencies for delineating cancerous breast biopsy tissue from adjacent normal

“…The OFL‐5102 LED from Multicomp with a peak operating wavelength of 940 nm was used to perform the NIR spectroscopy measurements. The operating wavelength of 940 nm was selected because the optical reduced scattering coefficient at 940 nm could significantly distinguish between cancer and normal tissues in our earlier work [14]. The narrow beamwidth (~10°) of the LED along with the Fresnel lens focused the light at the center of the tissue sample.…”

“…Additionally, optical properties such as reduced scattering coefficient and absorption coefficient have also been explored for breast cancer diagnosis [14]–[18]. Pal et al [14] and Spreinat et al [18] proposed multispectral near‐infrared techniques to diagnose breast and skin cancer, respectively. Jacques et al [16] review the optical properties for different types of tissue.…”

Near-infrared spectroscopy for structural bone assessment

“…Rapid advancement in process analytical technology, miniaturization, and computational learning have led to advancement in non-medical fields. 39 This study describes the first of many emerging clinical uses of NIRS, which include cancer, 40,41 serum markers, 24,41,42 heart disease, 43 transplant rejection, 44 and fibrosis. 45 In analyzing fresh human bone, our study marks a progression from studies where NIRS has been used to analyze animal and cadaveric human connective tissues, [24][25][26][27][46][47][48][49] or confined to prediction of bone water content.…”