X-ray scattering for the characterization of lyophilized breast tissue samples

This work investigates the possibility of characterizing breast cancer by measuring the X-ray scattering profiles of lyophilized excised breast tissue samples. Since X-ray scattering from water-rich tissue is dominated by scattering from water, the removal of water by lyophilization would enhance the characterization process. In the present study, X-ray scattering profiles of 22 normal, 22 malignant and 10 benign breast tissue samples are measured. The cut-offs of scatter diagrams, sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of three characterization parameters (full width at half maximum (FWHM) for the peak at 1.1 nm−1, area under curve (AUC), and ratio of 1st to 2nd scattering peak intensities (I1/I2%)) are calculated and compared to the data from non-lyophilized samples. Results show increased sensitivity (up to 100%) of the present data on lyophilized breast tissue samples compared to previously reported data for non-lyophilized samples while the specificity (up to 95.4%), diagnostic accuracy (up to 95.4%) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve values (up to 0.9979) for both sets of data are comparable. The present study shows significant differences between normal samples and each of malignant and benign samples. Only subtle differences exist between malignant and benign lyophilized breast tissue samples where FWHM=0.7±0.1 and 0.8±0.3, AUC=1.3±0.2 and 1.4±0.2 and I1/I2%=44.9±11.0 and 52.4±7.6 for malignant and benign samples respectively.