Human Breast Tumor Characterization on Post-Surgical Mastectomy Specimens Using Harmonic Motion Imaging (HMI)

Recently, we have shown that Harmonic Motion Imaging (HMI) can be used to differentiate relative stiffness and monitor HIFU ablations in small lumpectomy human breast specimens. The objective of this study is to apply HMI on post-surgical mastectomy breast specimen to mimic the in vivo environment and characterize tumor at different depth for better tumor localization and identification before and after HIFU treatment. 2D HMI displacement maps could be generated to map the induced peak-to-peak displacement covering the entire target area within two minutes indicating lower displacement in the tumor region and higher displacement in the peripheral tissue. A Student's paired t-test across all specimens showed a significant difference in the HMI displacement (P < 0.0001) between the tumor and the perilesional tissue. HMI was shown to successfully map the relative stiffness at variable depths in post-surgical human breast mastectomy specimens. This study therefore lays the foundation for upcoming clinical application of HMI on the breast for tumor detection and subsequent thermal ablative treatment.