Stiffness mapping for early detection of breast cancer: combined force and displacement measurements

Early detection of breast cancer is crucial to patient survival. Our ultimate goal is to automate and refine the manual breast exam process using an electromechanical device that gently indents the tissue at multiple locations and measures the required indentation forces and the resulting displaceme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Engineering with computers 2022-10, Vol.38 (5), p.4023-4041
Main Authors: Olson, Lorraine G., Throne, Robert D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breast cancer
CAE) and Design
Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control
Optimization
Classical Mechanics
Computer Science
Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD
Control
Displacement
Electromechanical devices
Finite element method
Genetic algorithms
Indentation
Math. Applications in Chemistry
Mathematical and Computational Engineering
Original Article
S.I. : Image-Based Methods in Computational Medicine
Stiffness
Systems Theory
Tumors
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Summary:Early detection of breast cancer is crucial to patient survival. Our ultimate goal is to automate and refine the manual breast exam process using an electromechanical device that gently indents the tissue at multiple locations and measures the required indentation forces and the resulting displacements of the tissue surface. Our current experiments use a simplified electromechanical device and average-sized (180 cc) silicone breast phantoms to collect the force/displacement data. This data is used with finite element methods and a genetic algorithm to create a three-dimensional map of the stiffness inside the breast—unusually stiff regions are suspected tumors. We tested 14 tumor-free phantoms and 14 tumor-containing phantoms. Using a combination of 10% force data and 90% displacement data we could correctly classify all phantoms as tumor-containing or tumor-free, which was substantially more robust than either measurement modality alone. In addition, the approach is robust to errors in the stiffness assumed in the computations.
ISSN:0177-0667
1435-5663
DOI:10.1007/s00366-022-01741-3