CANCER DETECTION BY OPTICAL MEASUREMENT OF COMPRESSION-INDUCED TRANSIENTS

• US 20080004531A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General Brigham, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carp, Stefan, Boas, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,010,277 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/473
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0053 by applying pressure, e.g. compression, indentation, palpation, grasping, gauging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/507 for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT

Abstract

A cancer screening method includes changing a compression state of selected tissue; and obtaining a signal indicative of a response of an optical property of the selected tissue in response to the change in the compression state.

Claims

1. A cancer screening method comprising:

changing a compression state of selected tissue; and

obtaining a signal indicative of a response of an optical property of the selected tissue in response to the change in the compression state.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an oxygen consumption profile at least in part on the basis of the signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a profile of volumetric rate of blood flow in the selected tissue at least in part on the basis of the signal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the selected tissue to be breast tissue.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the compression state comprises applying a constant pressure to the selected tissue.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising selecting the constant pressure to be between 0.5 and 4.5 lbs/square inch.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the first measurement comprises illuminating the tissue with near-infrared radiation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the first measurement comprises detecting near-infrared radiation scattered from within the tissue.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a profile of volumetric rate of blood flow comprises applying a constraint specifying that blood flow into the selected tissue is equal to blood flow out of the selected tissue.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a profile of volumetric rate of blood flow comprises applying a rule that allows blood flow into the selected tissue to be different than blood flow out of the selected tissue.

11. A cancer screening method comprising:

causing selected tissue to undergo a transition between a first compression state and a second compression state;

obtaining a measurement of a time-dependent optical property of blood within the selected tissue; and

at least in part on the basis of the measurement, determining whether the selected tissue contains a tumor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the selected tissue contains a tumor comprises comparing the measurement with a model of an expected change in the time-dependent optical property.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the selected tissue contains a tumor comprises estimating a value of a model parameter on the basis of the measurement.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the model parameter to be a model parameter indicative of oxygen consumption by the selected tissue.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the model parameter to be a model parameter indicative of volumetric blood flow rate within the selected tissue.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the model parameter to be a model parameter indicative of volumetric blood flow rate within the selected tissue comprises applying a constraint specifying that blood flow into the selected tissue is equal to blood flow out of the selected tissue.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the model parameter to be a model parameter indicative of volumetric flood flow rate within the selected tissue comprises applying a rule that allows blood flow into the selected tissue to be different than blood flow out of the selected tissue.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the source of electromagnetic radiation comprises a near-infrared source.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to determine an oxygen consumption profile at least in part on the basis of the signal.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to determine a profile of volumetric rate of blood flow in the selected tissue at least in part on the basis of the signal.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the force applicator is configured to apply a constant pressure to the selected tissue.

18. A cancer-screening apparatus comprising:

a force applicator for selectively placing selected tissue in one of a plurality of compression states;

a source of electromagnetic radiation for illuminating the selected tissue;

a detector for detecting electromagnetic radiation scattered from within the selected tissue; and

a processor coupled to receive a signal from the detector, the processor being configured to estimate at least one of oxygen consumption and blood flow of the selected tissue based at least in part on the signal provided by the detector.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the force applicator is configured to apply a constant pressure between 0.5 and 4.5 lbs/square inch.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the detector comprises a spectrometer.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the detector comprises an X-ray tomosynthesis machine, and the processor is configured to execute software for tomosynthesis.

26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the force applicator comprises a force transducer for providing a signal indicative of applied compression force.

27. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the detector comprises an MRI scanner.

28. A cancer screening method comprising:

causing selected tissue to undergo a transition between a first compression state and a second compression state;

obtaining a measurement of a time-dependent optical property of blood within the selected tissue;

generating tomographic images of the selected tissue based on the time-dependent optical property, the tomographic images showing a physiological parameter associated with subvolumes of the selected tissue, the physiological parameter being indicative of cancer.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the physiological parameter is one of oxygen consumption and blood flow.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

identifying a first subvolume of the selected tissue as cancerous based on an analysis of the physiological parameter associated with the first subvolume.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the physiological parameter is oxygen consumption, and identifying comprises:

determining that the oxygen consumption of the first subvolume is above a predefined value.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising constructing a three-dimensional image of the selected tissue from the tomographic images.