Development of Modality-Independent Elastography as a Method of Breast Cancer Detection

Abstract

Early detection of breast lesions with malignant potential plays an important role in patient prognosis and survival. While X-ray mammography is the current clinical standard for screening and detection, traditional techniques such as palpation in the physical exam still play an important diagnostic role, and additional alternative means are actively being sought for the identification of suspicious lesions. This work has been focused on the development of a novel method termed ‘modality-independent elastography’ (MIE) for the purpose of quantitatively extracting the material properties of tissue. This is quite relevant in the context of breast cancer, as solid tumors are typically stiffer than the surrounding unremarkable normal tissue. MIE performs an iterative non-rigid, model-constrained image registration analysis of a tissue under differing states of mechanical loading to produce a spatial mapping of elastic modulus values, which can be then used to characterize and/or localize a lesion. Simulation and phantom experiments were performed for two- and three-dimensional systems with a variety of image data acquired from CT, MR, and digital photography. Additional work produced a clinically compatible proof-of-concept system that is suitable for undergoing further refinement in preparation for initial human trials. Preliminary results have been encouraging and hold promise for the use of MIE in detection and characterization of abnormal stiffness within the breast.