Macroscopic inelastic scattering imaging using a hyperspectral line-scanning system identifies invasive breast cancer in lumpectomy and mastectomy specimens

Significance Of patients with early-stage breast cancer, 60% to 75% undergo breast-conserving surgery. Of those, 20% or more need a second surgery because of an incomplete tumor resection only discovered days after surgery. An intraoperative imaging technology allowing cancer detection on the margins of breast specimens could reduce re-excision procedure rates and improve patient survival.

Aim We aimed to develop an experimental protocol using hyperspectral line-scanning Raman spectroscopy to image fresh breast specimens from cancer patients. Our objective was to determine whether macroscopic specimen images could be produced to distinguish invasive breast cancer from normal tissue structures.

Approach A hyperspectral inelastic scattering imaging instrument was used to interrogate eight specimens from six patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. Machine learning models trained with a different system to distinguish cancer from normal breast structures were used to produce tissue maps with a field-of-view of 1 cm² classifying each pixel as either cancer, adipose, or other normal tissues. The predictive model results were compared with spatially correlated histology maps of the specimens.

Results A total of eight specimens from six patients were imaged. Four of the hyperspectral images were associated with specimens containing cancer cells that were correctly identified by the new ex vivo pathology technique. The images associated with the remaining four specimens had no histologically detectable cancer cells, and this was also correctly predicted by the instrument.

Conclusions We showed the potential of hyperspectral Raman imaging as an intraoperative breast cancer margin assessment technique that could help surgeons improve cosmesis and reduce the number of repeat procedures in breast cancer surgery.

Uncontrolled Keywords

Raman spectroscopy; breast cancer; breast-conserving surgery; machine learning; biomedical imaging; tissue optics; biochemistry; support vector machines