Low-frequency phased-array 2D fluorescence localization in breast cancer detection

Abstract

A method for rapid, non-invasive 2D fluorescence localization of breast cancer using low frequency phased array near-infrared technique is presented in this article. In our study, we have developed a dual-channel fluorescence detection system to locate breast cancer. This system consists two pair of in-phase and out-of-phase light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the light sources and Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) as the detector. Two null planes generated by cancellation of diffusion photon density waves (DPDW) will indicate the 2D position of breast cancer with exogenous contrast agents. The fluorescent contrast agent used in this study is Indocyanine Green (ICG) and the minimum amount of ICG detected by our system is 0.5 μM. With the 2 cm separation of sources and detector, the maximum depth our system can detect is 10 mm. The whole system is in compact size and portable. Phantom experiments show that the system can provide real time detection and localization of small hidden absorbing-fluorescent objects inside the highly scattering medium with high accuracy of ±3 mm. The potential application is that it is low-cost and can be used for breast cancer localization as operation aid and self-examination.