Design considerations for an optical mammography system

Optical mammography is under development and evaluation. The main aim of the work is to find a complementary technique to X-ray mammography to more accurately find early breast tumours. Such a technique could be used as an alternative or add on to existing techniques – mainly X-ray mammography. Several different types of optical instruments have been developed for this purpose.

Your task in this project is to suggest a design of a system for optical mammography based on the available knowledge. You should also suggest research you believe is necessary in order to judge how to best identify a malignant lesion inside the female breast by optical means.

You should especially consider:

• Absorption spectra of chromophores in the wavelength region of interest.
• What would the best geometry be? Why is geometry of importance? Would you use a CW, frequency domain or time-resolved detection technique? Notice that there are presently no commonly accepted answers to all these issues.  
• How long time would an examination require?
• Would the examination need a contrast agent? In that case, what would the ideal properties of such an agent be?
• Consider any risks with this type of diagnostic examination.

The intention is that the project should include the following:

• You are supposed to study the field of optical mammography. This background should be included in the introduction of the report and work as a platform for your suggested system.
• You should try to measure the optical properties of tissues and wavelengths of interest for the project (during the laboratory exercises).
• You should calculate the light distribution for the wavelength of interest (during the computer exercises and by yourself).
• Discuss the pros and cons with the different techniques available.
• Make a suggestion of a design of an optical mammography system and motivate why you have chosen this alternative.
• You should make an attempt to estimate the severity of possible side effects of the examination (discomfort, duration of examination, laser safety, possible side-effects of a contrast agent etc).

Suggested key-words: breast tumours, tissue optics, optical mammography