Towards a Portable Platform Integrated With Multispectral Noncontact Probes for Delineating Normal and Breast Cancer Tissue Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Uttam M. Pal, G. K. Anil Vishnu, Gayatri Gogoi, Saeed Rila, Saahil Shroff, Gokul AM, Pronami Borah, Manoj Varma, Vishnu Kurpad, Deb Baruah, Jayant S. Vaidya, Hardik J. Pandya
Abstract
Currently, the confirmation of diagnosis of breast cancer is made by microscopic examination of an ultra-thin slice of a needle biopsy specimen. This slice is conventionally formalin-fixed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and visually examined under a light microscope. This process is labor-intensive and requires highly skilled doctors (pathologists). In this paper, we report a novel tool based on near-infrared spectroscopy (Spectral-IRDx) which is a portable, non-contact, and cost-effective system and could provide a rapid and accurate diagnosis of cancer. The Spectral-IRDx tool performs absorption spectroscopy at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths of 850, 935, and 1060 nm. We measure normalized detected voltage (Vdn) with the tool in 10 deparaffinized breast biopsy tissue samples, 5 of which were cancer (C) and 5 were normal (N) tissues. The difference in Vdn at 935 nm and 1060 nm between cancer and normal tissues is statistically significant with p-values of 0.0038 and 0.0022 respectively. Absorption contrast factor (N/C) of 1.303, 1.551, and 1.45 are observed for 850, 935, and 1060 nm respectively. The volume fraction contrast (N/C) of lipids and collagens are reported as 1.28 and 1.10 respectively. Higher absorption contrast factor (N/C) and volume fraction contrast (N/C) signifies higher concentration of lipids in normal tissues as compared to cancerous tissues, a basis for delineation. These preliminary results support the envisioned concept for noninvasive and noncarcinogenic NIR-based breast cancer diagnostic platform, which will be tested using a larger number of samples.