Non-invasive and non-ionizing depth resolved infra-red imaging for detection and evaluation of breast cancer: a numerical study

Abstract

Among various breast cancer screening modalities (x-ray mammography, magnetic resonance, ultrasound, optical, positron emission mammography, molecular breast, breast specific gamma, guided radiofrequency biopsy and electrical impedance imaging) recently proposed infrared thermography proved to be an emerging screening technique due to its inherent capabilities (such as non-contact, non-harmful, full field imaging) for early detection of breast cancer. It is highly desirable to diagnose the cancer at an early stage for proper treatment. This present work highlights an emissivity insensitive highly depth resolved infrared imaging technique and associated analysis for early detection of the tumours present inside the breast at different depths simulated using a three-dimensional finite element model. In order to make this study more realizable an additive white Gaussian noise is incorporated in the generated simulated data. Further, the noisy data is analysed using time domain data processing technique to obtain the respective phase information. This letters presents the results obtained results for both normal breast as well as for the breast having four tumours located at different depths. In order to compare the detection capabilities of the proposed scheme quantitatively signal to noise ratio is taken as a figure of merit.