DSM – Photoacoustic Dual-Scan Mammoscope Shows Promise
March 22, 2021 – Windsong’s Breast Center is excited about an innovative breast imaging technology called Photoacoustic Dual-scan Mammoscope (DSM). DSM showed promising results in detecting breast cancer. Windsong collaborated with Dr. Jun Xia of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Science to examine the technology.
The study involving DSM used a combination of laser and ultrasound to take images of the breast in a study of 38 patients, in which various breast tumors were imaged. The study compared tumor-bearing breast with healthy breasts. DSM imaging results were also compared with clinical ultrasound to visualize vascular features in and around the tumor mass.
Researchers found that the tumor-bearing breasts had larger vessels and showed stronger variations in background signals than those in healthy breasts using DSM imaging. Preliminary data in comparing DSM plus ultrasound imaging showed the new technique has potential to differentiate tumor types.
Overall, the results showed that combining DSM with ultrasound imaging have promising potential in breast cancer detection. The research data was published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics Express.
According to Dr. Cynthia Fan, breast imaging radiologist and research collaborator at Windsong, DSM is non-invasive, radiation-free, requires only minimal compression, and is more tolerable for patients. Dr. Fan says it holds great promise for improve breast cancer detection and tumor characterization.
This research which was initially funded through a generous grant from the Komen Foundation, recently received a new $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to continue work on developing the new technology.
