Prospective study of quantitative broadband diffuse optical spectroscopy for differential diagnosis of suspicious breast lesions

The goal of this prospective clinical study was to determine if quantitative broadband (600-1000nm) diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) can differentiate suspicious benign and malignant breast lesions and compare various optical biomarkers. To accomplish this goal, N=68 subjects were measured using a custom probe-based hybrid broadband continuous-wave and frequency domain diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging device. Lesion concentrations of oxyhemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, water, lipid, fat, and collagen were estimated from tissue optical absorption. We found that absolute concentrations of collagen were significantly elevated (p=0.037) in malignant lesions versus normal tissue, while elevated methemoglobin approached significance (p=0.058). In addition, elevated water concentrations were a significant differentiator (p=0.039) of malignant versus benign lesions when applying Zscore normalization and a previously published model of malignancy probability.