Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Guided Tomographic Optical Breast Imaging (TOBI)

Screening for breast cancer improves early detection of aggressive cancers and has been shown to reduce breast cancer related mortality. Currently, mammography is the most effective way of detecting early stage, non palpable breast cancers. However, mammography only reveals the breast structure, and cannot say much about the breast physiological state. We propose Tomographic Optical Breast Imaging (TOBI) as an inexpensive, patient friendly technique that is non-invasive and does not use non-ionizing radiation. TOBI uses near infrared light and by measuring how such light passes through the breast, images of blood volume and hemoglobin oxygenation can be obtained. In this study, TOBI is combined with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT, a form of 3D mammography) and our hypothesis is that the TOBI-DBT combined images can be used to diagnose breast cancer with significantly improved sensitivity and specificity compared to DBT alone.