Breast cancer is one of the most life-threatening tumors among women in U.S. There is considerable evidence that early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer can significantly increase chances of survival. While X-ray mammography is the current standard screening technique, it is limited by its poor soft tissue differentiation and radiation exposure. Patients with positive mammographic findings require a biopsy for definitive diagnosis, and it was reported that biopsies of breast lesions identified in mammography screenings are negative for malignancy in a significant portion of the patients. We propose to develop a novel non-ionizing, cost-effective, high spatial resolution imaging modality for imaging electrical impedance by integrating ultrasound with magnetism: magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction (MAT-MI), for early detection of breast cancer. This proposed development is based on the experimental evidence that cancerous tissue shows significantly lower impedance value than normal and benign tissue. In the proposed MAT-MI, the object is located in a static magnetic field and a short-pulsed magnetic field. The pulsed magnetic field induces eddy current in the sample. Consequently, the sample will emit ultrasonic waves by the Lorenz force. The acoustic signals are collected around the object to reconstruct images related with the electrical impedance distribution in the object. We propose to conduct theoretical, computational and experimental studies to develop the novel MAT-MI approach, and assess its feasibility in well-controlled experimental setting. We will develop an experimental MAT-MI system which can image electrical impedance distribution of biological tissue. We will conduct well-controlled phantom experiments to evaluate the performance and quantify the imaging parameters of the proposed MAT-MI system, for breast cancer detection application. High resolution imaging of electrical impedance distribution is of significance for a variety of applications ' in biomedical research and clinical diagnosis, such as cancer detection. The successful development of a high-resolution, non-ionizing, cost-effective, electrical impedance imaging modality will have a significant impact to cancer research, leading to quantitative early detection of breast cancer. ? ? ?
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