Thomas Burton, Utah Valley University
An intraoperative detection of malignant cells in the margins of excised tissue during the breast conservation surgery (BCS) is critical for patient survival. Traditionally, the surgeon removes malignant breast tissue and pathology analysis is performed subsequently in the lab searching for residual malignant cells on the margins of excised tissue. If such cells are present, a second, and sometimes a third, surgical procedure is needed to remove them. The multiple procedures are time consuming, painful, and costly. Further, malignant tissue that remains in the breast has the potential to continue growing and metastasizing to other body parts. Ideally, the boundaries on an incision should be free of malignant tissue after the initial surgery. A software for breast cancer data acquiring and analysis is presented. The main objective of the presented work is improving the BCS surgical outcomes by having pathology analysis inside the operating room. Such a technology would enable real time malignancy detection and removal during the initial surgical procedures. Our software is an interface for high frequency ultrasonic technology. It communicates with an oscilloscope and ultrasound generator device to acquire, analyze, and store breast tissue data generated using high frequency ultrasound waveforms. The developed system implements pioneering data analysis techniques to determine breast tissue malignancy. The system has been tested using phantoms and breast tissue specimens collected at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). Our software has delivered high-accuracy data collection and analysis procedures when compared with the pathology results. Additionally, it is significantly faster than the old procedure of manual data collection and storing methods used by our team at the HCI. The software interface is user friendly, does not require any knowledge in programming and can be used by the medical team in the operating room. The system is a prototype for a commercial product that could be used for in vivo tissue examination to assist surgeons with cancer detection in soft tissue organs such as the breast.