A cheaper alternative to x-ray imaging could increase optical mammography (OM) sensitivity by as much as 1,000-fold while minimizing ionizing radiation exposure in patients undergoing breast cancer screenings, the Optical Society announced this month.
The golden standard in breast cancer diagnosis is x-ray mammography, but the traditional method is limited by a patient’s age, weight, BMI, breast tissue makeup and whether hormone replacement therapy is in progress, according to an OSA release. X-rays have also faced criticism for inaccurate reporting, especially in younger women.
“Optical imaging methods, on the other hand, have attracted increasing interest for breast cancer diagnosis since both visible and infrared light are highly sensitive to tissue composition,” the release read. Physicians have tried to supplement x-ray mammography with MRI and ultrasound, but neither technique has held its own in the clinical setting.
The instrument Italian researcher Edoardo Ferocino, MSc, and his team developed replaces two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) of existing instruments with an eight-channel probe involving silicon photomultipliers and a multichannel time-to-digital converted, he said in the release. The steps reportedly eliminate “time-wasting” pre-scanning while increasing the sensitivity of optical mammography.
OM can measure blood volume, oxygenation, and lipid, water and collagen content for suspected tumor areas identified with prior x-ray mammography, Ferocino said. But the field has a lot of growing to do—while awareness of optical mammography is spreading, OM has yet to achieve good spatial resolution.
“Breast cancer tumors larger than one centimeter are very dangerous and more likely to lead to death, so a successful screening technique must be able to resolve smaller lesions,” the OSA wrote. “This remains a problem with OM imaging as a stand-alone technique, but combining OM with other imaging methods shows some promise.”
Ferocino’s research group is planning further clinical studies to explore the use of OM in predicting chemotherapy outcomes, according to the release. The team’s research is slated for presentation at the OSA Biophotonics Congress this April in Hollywood, Florida.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.