Qianqian Fang PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Richard H. Moore, Abstract Co-Author: Research support, General Electric Company Co-owner, Intergon Data Systems

Daniel B. Kopans MD, Abstract Co-Author: Research support, General Electric Company

David Boas PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Tomographic optical breast imaging (TOBI) is a safe, non-invasive and potentially low-cost technique to image breast lesion functional properties. Combining optical imaging with high-resolution X-ray mammography or digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) in a multi-modal system can be advantageous, as it can provide both functional and structural information to help detect and diagnose lesions. Efficient methods to fuse the X-ray tissue structure in an optical image reconstruction are of critical importance for the success of this method.

We have developed a combined TOBI/DBT imager and a joint image reconstruction approach to allow the use of high-resolution structural images to guide the reconstruction of the functional optical images. We process the DBT image into 3D tissue compositional maps and use them to constrain the optical image reconstruction. We test this approach with a set of clinical data measured from 51 subjects using our combined TOBI/DBT imager. Among them, 26 have malignant lesions, 17 have solid benign lesions and 8 have cysts. From the reconstructed images, we estimate the optical properties for the lesions, fibroglandular and adipose tissue. A paired or two-sample t-test is then used to find significant differences between different patient groups.

The reconstructed functional images with the structural-priors show more spatial details in the lesion region compared to the results from the non-prior-guided reconstructions. A two-sample t-test indicates significant difference (p=0.04) in the total hemoglobin concentration between malignant and solid benign lesions. Significant difference (p=0.008) is also found in the scattering coefficient between the malignant lesion and the surrounding fibroglandular tissue.

With the spatial-prior-guided reconstruction, we are able to recover lesion images with improved resolution without requiring specific segmentation for the tumor. The enhanced image quality is a result of fusion between the structural and functional information. Incorporating this technique in the combined TOBI/DBT imaging system is expected to find cancer with higher sensitivity and specificity.

Combined optical imaging and mammography can improve the specificity in early diagnosis of breast cancer and reduce un-necessary biopsies.

Fang, Q, Moore, R, Kopans, D, Boas, D, Improving Localization of Malignant and Benign Breast Lesions with Structural Prior-guided Optical Imaging and Tomosynthesis.  Radiological Society of North America 2011 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 26 - December 2, 2011 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2011/11012651.html