Optical palpation for the visualization of tumor in human breast tissue
Abstract
Accurate and effective removal of tumor in one operation is an important goal of breast-conserving surgery. However, it is not always achieved. Surgeons often utilize manual palpation to assess the surgical margin and/or the breast cavity. Manual palpation, however, is subjective and has relatively low resolution. Here, we investigate a tactile imaging technique, optical palpation, for the visualization of tumor. Optical palpation generates maps of the stress at the surface of tissue under static preload compression. Stress is evaluated by measuring the deformation of a contacting thin compliant layer with known mechanical properties using optical coherence tomography. In this study, optical palpation is performed on 34 freshly excised human breast specimens. Wide field-of-view (up to ~46 × 46 mm) stress images, optical palpograms, are presented from four representative specimens, demonstrating the capability of optical palpation to visualize tumor. Median stress reported for adipose tissue, 4 kPa, and benign dense tissue, 8 kPa, is significantly lower than for invasive tumor, 60 kPa. In addition, we demonstrate that optical palpation provides contrast consistent with a related optical technique, quantitative micro-elastography. This study demonstrates that optical palpation holds promise for visualization of tumor in breast-conserving surgery.
Citation
Allen , W M , Wijesinghe , P , Dessauvagie , B F , Latham , B , Saunders , C M & Kennedy , B F 2019 , ' Optical palpation for the visualization of tumor in human breast tissue ' , Journal of Biophotonics , vol. 12 , no. 1 , e201800180 . https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201800180
Publication
Journal of Biophotonics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1864-063XType
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2018 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201800180
Description
Australian Research Council; Cancer Council Western Australia; Department of Health, Government of Western Australia; OncoResMedical; William and Marlene Schrader Trust of The University of Western AustraliaCollections
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