Breast Cancer Detection & Diagnosis based on Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Edna Furman-Haran¹, Erez Eyal¹, Myra Shapiro-Feinberg², Dov Grobgeld¹, talia Golan³, Yaacov Itzchak³, Raphael Catane³, Moshe Papa³, Hadassa Degani¹

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was applied to the breast in order to evaluate it's feasibility for tracking the ductal tree in vivo and for identifying the distinct tensor parameters for delineating and diagnosing breast cancer. Pixel by pixel analysis of high spatial resolution DTI of the two breasts yielded parametric maps of the vector maps of the main diffusion direction, diffusion coefficients in the three orthogonal directions, and diffusion anisotropy. Statistical analysis demonstrated the high potential of this approach for cancer detection and diagnosis with 96% sensitivity and specificity for cancer detection, and 92% sensitivity and specificity for cancer diagnosis.