Rayleigh to Compton ratio scatter tomography applied to breast cancer diagnosis: A preliminary computational study

In the present work, a tomographic technique based on Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio (R/C) was studied using computational simulation in order to assess its application to breast cancer diagnosis. In this preliminary study, some parameters that affect the image quality were evaluated, such as: (i) energy beam, (ii) size and glandularity of the breast, and (iii) statistical count noise. The results showed that the R/C contrast increases with increasing photon energy and decreases with increasing glandularity of the sample. The statistical noise showed to be a significant parameter, although the quality of the obtained images was acceptable for a considerable range of noise level. The preliminary results suggest that the R/C tomographic technique has a potential of being applied as a complementary tool in the breast cancer diagnostic.

► A tomographic technique based on Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio is proposed in order to study breast tissues.
► The Rayleigh to Compton scattering ratio technique is compared with conventional transmission technique.
► The influence of experimental parameters (energy, sample, detection system) is studied.