With a lifetime risk of 1 in 8, breast cancer continues to be a major concern for women and their physicians. The optimal treatment of the disease depends on the stage of the cancer at diagnosis, which is typically assessed using medical imaging. However, currently employed imaging systems for breast tumor measurement rarely agree perfectly.

Our group developed an Intraoperative Photoacoustic Screening (iPAS) soft tissue scanner featuring high bulk tissue sensitivity, a clinically compatible scan-time of 6 min, imaging depths greater than 2 cm and the capability to visualize whole breast tumors based on their lipid, rather than hemoglobin, profile. Here, we report on the first clinical experience with breast cancer patients by comparing tumor-measurement using iPAS, preoperative dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and gold-standard pathology. Tumor size was measured volumetrically for iPAS and DCE-MRI, and separately using maximum diameters for pathology, DCE-MRI and iPAS. Comparisons were performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Twelve consecutive patients were included in the study, contingent on pathologically documented invasive carcinoma. iPAS volumetric tumor size was positively correlated to DCE-MRI (Pearson’s r = 0.78, p = 0.003) and not significantly different (Wilcoxon, p = 0.97). In comparison to pathology, tumor diameters given by iPAS were positively correlated (Pearson’s r = 0.87, p = 0.0002) and significantly different (Wilcoxon, p = 0.0015).

The results indicated that volumetric-measurement of invasive breast tumors with iPAS is similar to that of DCE-MRI. On the other hand, tumor diameter measurements were less reliable. Beyond enhancing surgical specimen examination, an extension of this technology to diagnostic imaging promises a new perspective on tumor assessment, potentially improving our current understanding and treatment of breast cancer.

一生中有八分之一的风险，乳腺癌仍然是妇女及其医生关注的主要问题。疾病的最佳治疗取决于诊断时癌症的阶段，通常使用医学成像来评估。然而，当前采用的用于乳腺肿瘤测量的成像系统很少能完美地达成共识。

我们的小组开发了一种术中光声筛查（iPAS）软组织扫描仪，该扫描仪具有高的整体组织敏感性，6分钟的临床兼容扫描时间，大于2 cm的成像深度以及能够根据其脂质而非脂蛋白可视化整个乳腺肿瘤的能力血红蛋白，轮廓。在这里，我们通过比较使用iPAS，术前动态对比增强磁共振成像（DCE-MRI）和金标准病理学的肿瘤测量来报告乳腺癌患者的首次临床经验。对于iPAS和DCE-MRI，通过体积测量肿瘤大小，对于病理学，DCE-MRI和iPAS，分别使用最大直径进行测量。使用Pearson相关系数和非参数Wilcoxon符号秩检验进行比较。

连续十二名患者被纳入研究，视病理记录的浸润性癌而定。iPAS肿瘤体积与DCE-MRI呈正相关（Pearson r = 0.78，p = 0.003），差异无统计学意义（Wilcoxon，p = 0.97）。与病理相比，iPAS给出的肿瘤直径呈正相关（Pearson's r = 0.87，p = 0.0002），并且有显着差异（Wilcoxon，p = 0.0015）。

结果表明，iPAS对侵袭性乳腺肿瘤的体积测量与DCE-MRI相似。另一方面，肿瘤直径测量的可靠性较差。除了加强手术标本检查之外，这项技术扩展到诊断成像还有望为肿瘤评估提供新的视角，从而有可能改善我们目前对乳腺癌的理解和治疗。