Chapter 26 - Photoacoustic imaging and detection of breast cancer and cervical cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is a common malignancy occurring in women, and its early diagnosis may prolong the life of the patient. Currently, mammography is the gold standard method to detect breast cancer in its early stages. However, mammography misses many cancers in dense-breasted women. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) leads to high-resolution functional and anatomical breast angiography. In a variety of PAI modalities, sufficient contrast has been achieved at depths beyond 2cm within dense breasts without compromising the real-time imaging performance. Cervical cancer arises from the cervix due to abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The imaging of the cervical canal is a difficult problem for most of the cancer imaging modalities. However, the development of a photoacoustic endoscope with small enough diameter allows for passage through the cervical canal and analysis of both the cervix itself and endometrial pathologic tissues. Photothermal therapy, which converts light energy into thermal energy to ablate tumors with the aid of photothermal agents, has emerged as a prospective method in the precise treatment of cancers.