Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Nov 25;8(1):206-15.
doi: 10.1102/1470-7330.2008.0032.

Optical imaging of the breast

S M W Y van de Ven  1 , S G Elias, M A A J van den Bosch, P Luijten, W P Th M Mali
Affiliations

Optical imaging of the breast

S M W Y van de Ven et al. Cancer Imaging. .

Abstract

This review provides a summary of the current state of optical breast imaging and describes its potential future clinical applications in breast cancer imaging. Optical breast imaging is a novel imaging technique that uses near-infrared light to assess the optical properties of breast tissue. In optical breast imaging, two techniques can be distinguished, i.e. optical imaging without contrast agent, which only makes use of intrinsic tissue contrast, and optical imaging with a contrast agent, which uses exogenous fluorescent probes. In this review the basic concepts of optical breast imaging are described, clinical studies on optical imaging without contrast agent are summarized, an outline of preclinical animal studies on optical breast imaging with contrast agents is provided, and, finally, potential applications of optical breast imaging in clinical practice are addressed. Based on the present literature, diagnostic performance of optical breast imaging without contrast agent is expected to be insufficient for clinical application. Development of contrast agents that target specific molecular changes associated with breast cancer formation is the opportunity for clinical success of optical breast imaging.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prototype of the diffuse optical tomography system used for clinical research (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Concepts of optical breast imaging. Optical breast imaging lay-out (A) with source and detector fibres covering the entire breast surface. In optical breast imaging without contrast agent (B) higher absorption by tumour components (predominantly haemoglobin) results in decreased light intensity registered by the detectors. In optical breast imaging with contrast agent (C) a fluorescent probe is administered that ideally accumulates at the tumour site. After excitation, light is emitted at a higher wavelength by this agent and the excitation wavelength is filtered to only detect the fluorescent signal.
Figure 3
Figure 3
T2-weighted MRI with fat-suppression compared to the enhanced-water map and the enhanced-blood map of the optical data set. The cyst shows a high signal intensity on the MRI and the enhanced-water map (high water content), and a low signal intensity on the enhanced-blood map (low blood content)[28].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Garcia M, Jemal A, Ward EM, et al. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society; 2007. Global cancer facts & figures 2007.
    1. Fletcher SW, Elmore JG. Clinical practice. Mammographic screening for breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:1672–80. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Humphrey LL, Helfand M, Chan BK, Woolf SH. Breast cancer screening: a summary of the evidence for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med. 2002;137:347–60. - PubMed
    1. Buist DS, Porter PL, Lehman C, Taplin SH, White E. Factors contributing to mammography failure in women aged 40–49 years. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004;96:1432–40. - PubMed
    1. Carney PA, Miglioretti DL, Yankaskas BC, et al. Individual and combined effects of age, breast density, and hormone replacement therapy use on the accuracy of screening mammography. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138:168–75. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources