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

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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.