Primary Study of the Use of Laser-Induced Plasma Spectroscopy for the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer, or malignant breast neoplasm, is a type of cancer that originates from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of the milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. It is one of the most widespread diseases, especially in women. Thus far, large efforts have been towards the early diagnosis of cancer in general, and breast cancer specifically. Most of these techniques deal with malignant tissues without inducing or increasing pathological tissue changes or causing major side effects for the patient. This paper proposes a new technique for diagnosing the presence or occurrence of cancer and assessing its grade early, accurately, and safely. The presented technique depends on the interaction between the laser and the soft tissue in order to induce plasma, and allows us to classify the cancer by studying the difference in the intensity ratio of the trace elements in normal and malignant tissues. The results presented here are show that only four patients out of the total sample of 30 have erroneous trace elements and that this does not affect the overall decision. Hence, the performance of LIPS can be measured as 87%, while retaining 100% accuracy. Furthermore, LIPS technique is a simple and promising technique that is capable of diagnosing malignant cells and tissues.