Design and Development of Opto ThermoAcoustic OTA Measurement System to Differentiate Cancer from Adjacent Normal Breast Biopsy Tissue

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer accounting for almost 11.7% of all cancer incidences and 6.9% of cancer-related deaths globally in 2020, as per Globocan 2020 report. Diagnosis of breast cancer requires microscopic examination of tissue taken by a needle-core biopsy. These core biopsy tissues are then sliced to a few hundred micrometers, mounted on glass slides, and stained using hematoxylin and eosin. These glass slides are examined by an expert pathologist under a microscope to diagnose the cancer pathology. This thesis proposes an opto-thermal-acoustic (OTA) multimodal system (Hybrid Spectral-IRDx) that can quantify the bulk optical, thermal, and acoustic property of these tissues to aid the pathologist with additional information. This tool can provide immediate feedback over the adequacy of tumor resection in the operating room, potentially guiding the pathologist to make an informed decision. In this thesis, the Hybrid Spectral-IRDx Tool with the ability to quantify the bulk optical, thermal, and acoustic properties of the breast biopsy tissue is designed and developed. The Hybrid Spectral-IRDx system can quantify the optical attenuation coefficient (µa), reduced scattering coefficient (µs`), thermal conductivity (k), heat capacity (Cp), and acoustic attenuation coefficient (and#945;), of breast biopsy tissue. This system was used to characterize ex-vivo deparaffinized and formalin-fixed cancerous and adjacent normal tissues. The measurement on the formalin-fixed (FF) and deparaffinized (DP) breast biopsy tissues from a total of N = 30 subjects was performed. The ultrasound and optical measurements were performed on cancerous/fibroadenoma and its adjacent normal tissues from the same patients (N=19). ..