Detection, imaging and characterization of breast tumors

An optical system for in vivo, non-invasive examination of breast tissue of a female subject comprising:

• an optical module including an array of optical input ports and detection ports located in a selected geometrical pattern to provide a multiplicity of photon migration paths inside an examined region of the tissue, each said optical input port being constructed to introduce visible or infrared light emitted from a light source, each said optical detection port being constructed to receive photons of light that have migrated in the tissue from at least one of said input ports and provide said received light to a light detector;
• a controller constructed and arranged to control operation of said light source and said light detector to detect light that has migrated over at least one of said photon migration paths;
• and
• a processor connected to receive signals from said detector and arranged to form at least two data sets, a first of said data sets being collected by irradiating an examined tissue region of interest and a second of said data sets being collected by irradiating a reference tissue region having similar light scattering and absorptive properties as the examined tissue region, said processor being arranged to correlate said first and second data sets to detect abnormal tissue in the examined tissue region.

An optical system for in vivo, non-invasive examination of breast tissue of a female subject comprising:

• an optical module including an array of optical input ports and detection ports located in a selected geometrical pattern to provide a multiplicity of photon migration paths inside an examined region of the tissue or a model representing biological tissue, each said optical input port being constructed to introduce visible or infrared light emitted from a light source, each said optical detection port being constructed to receive photons of light that have migrated in the tissue or the model from at least one of said input ports and provide said received light to a light detector;
• a controller constructed and arranged to control operation of said light source and said light detector to detect light that has migrated over at least one of said photon migration paths;
• and
• a processor connected to receive signals from said detector and arranged to form at least two data sets of two tissue regions, a first of said data sets being collected by irradiating an examined tissue region and a second of said data sets being collected by irradiating a region of a tissue model having selected light scattering and absorptive properties, said processor being arranged to correlate said first and second data sets to detect abnormal tissue in the examined tissue region.

An optical method for in vivo, non-invasive examination of breast tissue of a female subject comprising:

• providing an optical module including an array of optical input ports and detection ports located in a selected geometrical pattern to provide a multiplicity of photon migration paths inside an examined region of the tissue;
• placing said optical module on the breast of a female subject;
• introducing visible or infrared light from at least one said optical input port into an examined tissue region and receiving photons of light that have migrated in the examined tissue region to at least one of said detection ports;
• detecting said received photons by at least one optical detector optically coupled to said least one detection port;
• controlling said introducing and detecting steps to collect optical data corresponding to photons of light that have migrated between selected input and detection ports;
• processing said optical data to form at least two data sets, a first of said data sets representing blood volume in the examined tissue region and a second of said data sets representing blood oxygenation in the examined tissue region;
• and
• correlating said first and second data sets to detect abnormal tissue in the examined tissue region.