Characterization of Normal and Malignant Breast Tissues utilizing Hyperspectral Images and Associated Differential Spectrum Algorithm

Abstract

Breast malignancy is the most pervasive disease and a significant reason for death in women around the world. Recently, Photonic technologies play a vital role in medical applications. This study presents an outline of recent outcomes on the magnitude of breast tissue optical properties. We established an optical system setup utilizing a hyperspectral (HS) camera with poly-chromatic source lights with wavelength (380~1050 nm) for this investigation. Measuring the diffuse reflection (Ŗd) of the investigated ex vivo breast sample to select the optimum spectral image to differentiate between the normal and tumor in the near infra-red and visible (NIR–VIS) spectrum. Finally, applying the custom algorithm to increase the image contrast and applying contour delineation of the malignant regions. The experimental analysis indicates key spectroscopic variations between normal tissue and malignant region in range (550~650 nm). Although, after data normalization, there was noticeable variation at three ranges (630–680 nm), (720–770 nm), and (830–880 nm). The calculated standard deviation (Şd) between the normal and cancer tissue to validate the selective ranges shows that the highest contrast at wavelength 680 nm. However, the histogram analysis illustrates that the spectral image at 600 nm was higher contrast and wavelength 400 nm was the lowest contrast from the select seven-spectral images (400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000 nm) to avoid the processing time of the captured HS 128-frames. The proposed potential method could provide promising results on the investigated breast sample optical properties in the diagnostic applications to assist the pathologist and the surgeon. Where the optimum wavelength at 680 nm for diagnostic applications and the ideal spectral image at 600 nm discriminate between the normal and malignant tissue.