In vitro evaluation of surface based non-invasive breast cancer screening with Digital Image based Elasto Tomography (DIET)

Digital Image-based Elasto Tomography (DIET) is a non-invasive breast cancer screening modality that induces vibrations into a breast and images its surface motion with digital cameras. Disturbances in the motion are caused by areas of higher stiffness within the breast, potentially cancerous tumors. A concept is presented to detect the angular location of a tumor by analyzing the phase delay of the vibrations on the surface. The approach is verified experimentally on silicone phantom breasts with stiffer inclusions ranging from 0-32 mm. A strong signal differentiating healthy and cancerous phantoms can be seen at the second modal frequency of the breast, clearly detecting a 10 mm tumor. This approach offers great potential for this low cost and accessible breast cancer screening, as an adjunct to existing modalities.