EAGER: A CFD based thermal imaging technique for early breast cancer detection- Development and clinical assessment

EAGER：基于 CFD 的热成像技术，用于早期乳腺癌检测 - 开发和临床评估

• 批准号: 1640309
• 负责人: Satish Kandlikar
• 金额: $ 9.96万
• 依托单位: Rochester Institute of Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640309&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; CFD; based; thermal; imaging

Use of modern thermal imaging techniques to enhance the ability of conventional mammograms to screen effectively for breast cancerEarly and accurate detection of breast cancer is critical in effectively treating it and avoid spreading of cancer to other regions of the body. Current guidelines recommend routine screening mammography for all women over 40-50 years of age; however, the sensitivity and specificity of screening mammograms remains less than optimal. Thermal imaging has been explored in the past as an alternative or adjunct to mammography; historically thermal imaging has been cumbersome and uncomfortable for the patient. Modern technology should allow thermal imaging to provide useful information without requiring cooling or other manipulations that significantly impact patient comfort. The addition of thermography may be particularly beneficial in the setting of "dense breasts", seen in about 30% of women, when screening mammography alone is suboptimal. The initial phase of this work which is the basis of the current proposal will use real world clinical data obtained from mammography and magnetic resonance images to develop models for thermal imaging techniques. The expected follow up will be to apply the information gleaned to the development of an effective thermal imaging technique to serve as an adjunct and enhancement to routine screening mammography. Successful application has the potential to significantly increase the accuracy of screening for breast cancer and could have broad implications for preventive medicine including the reduction of mortality and morbidity of breast cancer at a community level.Developing a steady state thermography technique as a diagnostic tool to detect malignant breast tumors has the potential to greatly improve the early detection of breast cancer. Current thermographic systems available to detect breast cancer create an artificial thermal gradient by cooling the breast using cold plates or by blowing cold air to enhance the thermal signature of the tumor in the breast. This procedure is uncomfortable for the patient and very time consuming. Advances in infrared thermography and simulation tools have enabled detection of minute changes in temperature fields and accurate modeling of the breast. These improvements have enabled the use of steady state thermography for the early detection of breast cancer. To determine the viability of the technique, a cooperative research plan will be undertaken by leading experts from the medical and engineering domains to provide a patient-friendly breast cancer detection system (engineering team will consist of experts in the thermal analysis and numerical modeling areas, and the medical team consists of leading oncologists and radiologists from a reputed medical hospital in Rochester). A CFD simulation that can accurately simulate heat transfer in the breast will be developed using ANSYS-Fluent. A better understanding of the various models used to predict the thermal properties of the breast tissue will be developed. The results from the simulations will be compared with the clinical data to determine the thermal properties of the breast tissue and its variation based on the composition of the breast. The effect of the thickness of the various tissue layers on the ability of breast thermography to determine the presence of tumors will be examined. The effect of tumor size and position on the surface temperature field will be studied. The sensitivity limits and accuracy of tumor detection using steady state thermography will be determined.

利用现代热成像技术增强传统乳房X光检查有效筛查乳腺癌的能力早期准确检测乳腺癌对于有效治疗乳腺癌并避免癌症扩散到身体其他部位至关重要。目前的指南建议对所有 40-50 岁以上的女性进行常规筛查乳房 X 光检查；然而，筛查乳房X光检查的敏感性和特异性仍然不够理想。热成像过去曾被探索作为乳房X线照相术的替代方案或辅助手段。从历史上看，热成像对于患者来说既麻烦又不舒服。现代技术应该允许热成像提供有用的信息，而不需要冷却或其他显着影响患者舒适度的操作。当单独筛查乳房 X 光检查效果不佳时，在约 30% 的女性中出现“致密乳房”的情况下，增加热成像可能特别有益。这项工作的初始阶段是当前提案的基础，将使用从乳房X线照相术和磁共振图像获得的真实世界临床数据来开发热成像技术的模型。预期的后续行动将是将收集到的信息应用于开发有效的热成像技术，作为常规筛查乳房X光检查的辅助和增强。成功的应用有可能显着提高乳腺癌筛查的准确性，并可能对预防医学产生广泛的影响，包括降低社区一级乳腺癌的死亡率和发病率。开发稳态热成像技术作为检测恶性乳腺肿瘤的诊断工具有可能大大改善乳腺癌的早期检测。目前可用于检测乳腺癌的热成像系统通过使用冷板冷却乳房或通过吹冷空气来增强乳房肿瘤的热特征，从而产生人工热梯度。这个过程对于患者来说是不舒服的并且非常耗时。红外热成像和模拟工具的进步使得能够检测温度场的微小变化并对乳房进行精确建模。这些改进使得稳态热成像技术能够用于乳腺癌的早期检测。为了确定该技术的可行性，来自医学和工程领域的领先专家将开展一项合作研究计划，以提供一种患者友好的乳腺癌检测系统（工程团队将由热分析和数值建模领域的专家组成，医疗团队将由来自罗切斯特一家知名医院的领先肿瘤学家和放射科医生组成）。将使用 ANSYS-Fluent 开发能够准确模拟乳房传热的 CFD 模拟。将更好地理解用于预测乳房组织热特性的各种模型。模拟结果将与临床数据进行比较，以确定乳房组织的热特性及其基于乳房成分的变化。将检查不同组织层的厚度对乳房热成像确定肿瘤存在的能力的影响。将研究肿瘤大小和位置对表面温度场的影响。将确定使用稳态热成像技术检测肿瘤的灵敏度极限和准确性。

项目成果

Generation and Thermal Simulation of a Digital Model of the Female Breast in Prone Position

俯卧位女性乳房数字模型的生成和热模拟

• DOI: 10.1115/1.4041421
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Journal of Engineering and Science in Medical Diagnostics and Therapy
• 作者: Gonzalez-Hernandez, Jose-Luis;Kandlikar, Dr. Satish;Dabydeen, Donnette;Medeiros, Lori;Phatak, Pradyumna
• 通讯作者: Phatak, Pradyumna