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Time-Resolved Transillumination of the Breast

Real-time transillumination of the breast (lightscanning) is a diag­ nostic technique based on the absorption of red and near-infrared light in the neovascular zone surrounding a malignant tumor (6, 16, 20). The method was introduced as an alternative or complement to mammography, and claimed to be of special value in women with a mammographically dense parenchyma (5). Initial studies with the technique were promising (5, 7, 12), but later results were disappointing, mainly due to the inability of lightscanning to detect small cancers and deeply situated lesions (1, 13-15). This limitation of lightscanning is due to pronounced multiple scattering of light as it passes through the tissue. A time-gating technique has been introduced to reduce the effect of light scattering (2, 3). The method is based on the concept that light which leaves the transilluminated tissue first has traveled a shorter and straighter path in the tissue than light exciting later (Fig. 1). Thus, as the "early" light is less scattered, it contains more information about the spatial localization of the absorbing lesion, i.e., the peritumoral neovascular zone (9, 11). The aim of this report is to demonstrate the time-resolved tech­ nique in an experimental setting on a phantom with optical proper­ ties similar to breast tissue in vitro.