TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards mm-wave spectroscopy for dielectric characterization of breast surgical margins
AU - Summers, Paul E.
AU - Vingiani, Andrea
AU - Di Pietro, Salvatore
AU - Martellosio, Andrea
AU - Espin-Lopez, Pedro F.
AU - Di Meo, Simona
AU - Pasian, Marco
AU - Ghitti, Michele
AU - Mangiacotti, Marco
AU - Sacchi, Roberto
AU - Veronesi, Paolo
AU - Bozzi, Maurizio
AU - Mazzanti, Andrea
AU - Perregrini, Luca
AU - Svelto, Francesco
AU - Preda, Lorenzo
AU - Bellomi, Massimo
AU - Renne, Giuseppe
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Purpose: The evaluation of the surgical margin in breast conservative surgery is a matter of general interest as such treatments are subject to the critical issue of margin status as positive surgical margins can undermine the effectiveness of the procedure. The relatively unexplored ability of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectroscopy to provide insight into the dielectric properties of breast tissues was investigated as a precursor to their possible use in assessment of surgical margins. Methods: We assessed the ability of a mm-wave system with a roughly hemispherical sensitive volume of ∼3 mm radius to distinguish malignant breast lesions in prospectively and consecutively collected tumoral and non-tumoral ex-vivo breast tissue samples from 91 patients. We characterized the dielectric properties of 346 sites in these samples, encompassing malignant, fibrocystic disease and normal breast tissues. An expert pathologist subsequently evaluated all measurement sites. Results: At multivariate analysis, mm-wave dielectric properties were significantly correlated to histologic diagnosis and fat content. Further, using 5-fold cross-validation in a Bayesian logistic mixed model that considered the patient as a random effect, the mm-wave dielectric properties of neoplastic tissues were significantly different from normal breast tissues, but not from fibrocystic tissue. Conclusion: Reliable discrimination of malignant from normal, fat-rich breast tissue to a depth compatible with surgical margin assessment requirements was achieved with mm-wave spectroscopy.
AB - Purpose: The evaluation of the surgical margin in breast conservative surgery is a matter of general interest as such treatments are subject to the critical issue of margin status as positive surgical margins can undermine the effectiveness of the procedure. The relatively unexplored ability of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectroscopy to provide insight into the dielectric properties of breast tissues was investigated as a precursor to their possible use in assessment of surgical margins. Methods: We assessed the ability of a mm-wave system with a roughly hemispherical sensitive volume of ∼3 mm radius to distinguish malignant breast lesions in prospectively and consecutively collected tumoral and non-tumoral ex-vivo breast tissue samples from 91 patients. We characterized the dielectric properties of 346 sites in these samples, encompassing malignant, fibrocystic disease and normal breast tissues. An expert pathologist subsequently evaluated all measurement sites. Results: At multivariate analysis, mm-wave dielectric properties were significantly correlated to histologic diagnosis and fat content. Further, using 5-fold cross-validation in a Bayesian logistic mixed model that considered the patient as a random effect, the mm-wave dielectric properties of neoplastic tissues were significantly different from normal breast tissues, but not from fibrocystic tissue. Conclusion: Reliable discrimination of malignant from normal, fat-rich breast tissue to a depth compatible with surgical margin assessment requirements was achieved with mm-wave spectroscopy.
KW - Dielectric tissue properties
KW - Millimeter waves
KW - Surgical margin
KW - Tissue discrimination
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U2 - 10.1016/j.breast.2019.02.008
DO - 10.1016/j.breast.2019.02.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 30884340
AN - SCOPUS:85062866462
VL - 45
SP - 64
EP - 69
JO - Breast
JF - Breast
SN - 0960-9776
ER -