Abstract

Summary: To diagnose the various clinical aspects of breast cancer still constitutes a major medical challenge, optical technology could substantially contribute to. However, clinical evaluation of optical methods for breast cancer detection faces a number of general problems to be dealt with in a study design: The heterogeneity of the pathomorphologic features of healthy and diseased breast tissues, the potential multiplicity of individual lesions in a single breast, and the positional uncertainty comparing the various imaging modalities available.

Furthermore, the potential clinical applications range from population-wide screening to an adjunctive diagnostic modality for conventionally diagnosed lesions, which all have rather different requirements as to diagnostic accuracy. Based on examples derived from the authors experience with Frequency Domain optical mammography (LIMA-Instrument, Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) and with Time Domain optical mammography (Instrument developed by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Berlin, Germany) solutions to the above mentioned general problems are elaborated. The individual clinical indications are detailed and discussed against the diagnostic performance of competing imaging modalities.

© 2002 Optical Society of America