Identification of neoplasias of breast tissues using a powder diffractometer.

An investigation was carried out to study the potential use of the angular distribution of scattered photons by human breast samples for a rapid identification of neoplasias of breast tissues. This technique has possible applications as diagnostic aid for breast cancer. In this work, a commercial powder diffractometer was used to obtain the scattering profiles from breast tissues histopathologically classified as normal breast tissues, fibroadenomas (benign breast diseases) and carcinomas (malignant breast diseases), in the interval 0.02A(-1) < x < 0.62A(-1). The experimental methods and data corrections are discussed in detail, and they included background subtraction, polarization, self-attenuation and geometric effects. The validation of the experimental procedure was achieved through an analysis of water sample. The results showed that the scattering profile is a unique impression of each type of tissue, being correlated with their microscopic morphological features. Multivariate analysis was applied to these profiles in order to verify if the information carried by these scattering profiles allow the differentiation between normal, benign and malignant breast tissues. The statistical analysis results showed that a correct identification of 75% of the analyzed samples is accomplished. The values of sensibility and specificity of this method in correctly differentiating between normal and neoplastic samples were 95.6% and 82.3%, respectively, while the values for differentiation between benign and malignant neoplasias were 78.6% and 62.5%. These initial results indicate the feasible use of commercial powder diffractometer to provide a rapid diagnostic with a high sensitivity.

[1]  J. H. Hubbell,et al.  Atomic form factors, incoherent scattering functions, and photon scattering cross sections , 1975 .

[2]  O. Gonçalves,et al.  Precise evaluation of elastic differential scattering cross-sections and their uncertainties in X-ray scattering experiments , 2002 .

[3]  U Neitzel,et al.  X-ray diffraction computed tomography. , 1987, Medical physics.

[4]  S J Wilkinson,et al.  A preliminary study of breast cancer diagnosis using laboratory based small angle x-ray scattering , 2005, Physics in medicine and biology.

[5]  Anil K. Jain,et al.  Statistical Pattern Recognition: A Review , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[6]  P. C. Johns,et al.  Measurement of coherent x-ray scatter form factors for amorphous materials using diffractometers , 2004, Physics in medicine and biology.

[7]  Robert J LeClair,et al.  A semianalytic model to extract differential linear scattering coefficients of breast tissue from energy dispersive x-ray diffraction measurements. , 2005, Medical physics.

[8]  D R Dance,et al.  Measurement of small-angle photon scattering for some breast tissues and tissue substitute materials. , 1991, Physics in medicine and biology.

[9]  O. Gonçalves,et al.  Coherent and incoherent scattering of 17.44 and 6.93 keV x-ray photons scattered from biological and biological-equivalent samples: characterization of tissues , 2002 .

[10]  E. Ryan,et al.  Angular dispersive X-ray scattering from breast tissue using synchrotron radiation , 2004 .

[11]  Ricardo Tadeu Lopes,et al.  Coherent scattering characteristics of normal and pathological breast human tissues , 2004 .

[12]  R D Speller,et al.  X-ray scatter signatures for normal and neoplastic breast tissues. , 1999, Physics in medicine and biology.

[13]  Saeed Sarkar,et al.  Application of Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) for Differentiation between Normal and Cancerous Breast Tissue , 2005, International journal of medical sciences.

[14]  K. Geraki,et al.  The use of combined trace element XRF and EDXRD data as a histopathology tool using a multivariate analysis approach in characterizing breast tissue , 2004 .

[15]  L. Morin.  Molecular Form Factors and Photon Coherent Scattering Cross Sections of Water , 1982 .

[16]  A. C. Rencher.  Interpretation of Canonical Discriminant Functions, Canonical Variates, and Principal Components , 1992 .

[17]  Carlos A. Pérez,et al.  X-ray scattering profiles of some normal and malignant human breast tissues , 2006 .

[18]  M. Poletti,et al.  X-ray scattering from human breast tissues and breast-equivalent materials. , 2002, Physics in medicine and biology.

[19]  U Neitzel,et al.  X-ray diffraction measurements of some plastic materials and body tissues. , 1987, Medical physics.

[20]  C. Bonifazzi,et al.  Photon cross-section data from X-ray diffraction pattern measurements: Correction procedure evaluations , 1998 .