A handheld optical probe for breast imaging using Monte Carlo Simulation technique

Cancer is considered to be a dreadful disease and breast cancer is more common among all age groups and demographic locations. The current technique used to screen breast cancer is mammography and screening at an early stage is the need of the hour. Imaging using optical techniques are safe due to its non-ionizing radiation when compared with x-ray based mammograms which uses ionizing radiation. Monte Carlo Simulation technique is used to model an optical scanner through which the light propagation of biological tissues was simulated. A hand-held optical scanner is designed with a source at the center and 10 detectors at either side of the source. Heterogeneous and homogeneous phantoms are constructed with optical tissue properties at 800 nm with a dimension of 30×30×30 mm. Three different tissue equivalent phantoms such as glandular with embedded ductal carcinoma of size 2 and 5mm, adipose with embedded ductal carcinoma of 5 mm and glandular with embedded fibrocystic tissue of 5 mm were created and simulations were carried out. The backscattered photons detected by the scanner are stored in the respective locations of the detector. Simulations were repeated and normalized backscattered intensity was obtained. The scanner could detect the embedded tissues as small as 2mm and located as deep as 5mm from the surface. Hence, handheld scanner offers good solution to diagnose breast cancer at an early stage and can be used for screening.