Trifold technique could improve breast cancer screening

Mammography is the most common breast cancer scanning technique, but it has a high false positive rate, especially for dense breasts.

Zheng et al. demonstrated the first volumetric tri-modal imaging system for breast tissue. This system combines photoacoustic imaging with ultrasound and shear wave elastography to characterize breast tissue more thoroughly than single-modal imaging techniques.

Tumors increase the vascularity and hemoglobin levels in their surroundings. Photoacoustic imaging is a relatively new technique that can reveal the hemoglobin distribution of breast tissue. Alone, however, this technique does not always portray malignancies as solid masses. To compensate, the authors supplemented photoacoustic imaging with shear wave elastography and ultrasound, which — like mammograms — is commonplace but prone to false positives.

The researchers tested their system on an imaging phantom that mimics soft tissue. Together, these three techniques allow visualization of the vascular structures and stiffness of the tissue. This improves the ability of non-invasive imaging techniques to identify malignant tumors during screening and will hopefully result in a more accurate diagnosis of breast cancer.

The tri-modal system is unique because it produces volumetric, or three-dimensional, images.

“This is the first tri-modal volumetric system developed from a linear ultrasound transducer array,” said author Jun Xia.

Next, the authors hope to test the system in a clinical setting. Their previous development, a dual-scan photoacoustic mammoscope, which also uses photoacoustic and ultrasound techniques, is already being tested in clinics.

“The addition of shear wave elastography will significantly improve the screening accuracy,” said author Emily Zheng.

Source: “Volumetric tri-modal imaging with combined photoacoustic, ultrasound, and shear wave elastography,” by Emily Zheng, Huijuan Zhang, Wentao Hu, Marvin M. Doyley, and Jun Xia, Journal of Applied Physics (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0093619 .

This paper is part of the Non-Invasive and Non-Destructive Methods and Applications Part I – Festschrift Collection, learn more here .