Combined MRI and Optical Imaging to Improved Breast Cancer Diagnosis

This proposal will investigate the performance of a combined optical-MRI imaging system in diagnosis of breast cancer. A diffuse optical tomography (DOT) imaging system will be integrated with a 3.0 T MRI scanner. It is hypothesized that the additional information measured by the combined MRI/DOT system will improve the specificity of DCE-MRI (dynamic contrast enhanced MRI) in diagnosis of breast cancer. High resolution anatomic MRI and DCE-MRI has evolved into a standard clinical tool for detection and diagnosis of breast lesions. Due to its high sensitivity MRI is fast becoming the most popular imaging modality for screening young women who are susceptible to early development of breast cancer. Pre-operative MRI has also become a common procedure for detecting multifocal or multicentric diseases to facilitate surgical planning. However, despite its high sensitivity, MRI also detects many benign lesions. The low specificity may lead to a great anxiety to patients, and many unnecessary biopsies or over-treatment. Other adjunct imaging modality to improve specificity is greatly needed. MR spectroscopy (MRS) and DOT are two techniques that have great potential to provide complementary information. After the study is completed, we will be able to test the hypothesis that "additional information provided by MRS and optical imaging can be used in conjunction with morphological and kinetics parameters measured by DCE-MRI to improve diagnostic accuracy of breast cancer". Furthermore, we will be able to determine among these additionally collected information, which parameter(s) are the most essential in improving diagnostic accuracy. Although the current breast imaging modalities have achieved a high success, further improvements for the subpopulation in whom conventional imaging does not work well are in great need. Our goal is to develop an imaging technology with optimized acquisition protocol to improve diagnosis of breast cancer, particularly for young women with dense breasts who need a breast MRI examination, so that they would not be subjected to false positive findings.