Tumor characterization using the backscatter coefficient at low and high-frequency

The backscatter coefficient (BSC) is an interesting parameter for cancer characterization. In this study, we investigated the interest of evaluating the BSC at high (40MHz) and low (15Mz) frequencies for characterizing ex vivo sarcomas. The agreement of BSCs at high and low frequencies for chondrosarcomas suggests the same scattering structure at these two frequencies (probably nuclei or cells). The mismatch for osteosarcomas would indicate a different scattering structure in these two cases with nuclei as scatterers at high frequency. These results show the value of scanning at low and high frequencies for characterizing these tumors.