Methods for modeling and predicting mechanical deformations of the breast under external Perturbations

Abstract

Currently, High Field (1.5T) Superconducting MR imaging does not allow live guidance during needle breast procedures, which allow only to calculate approximately the location of a cancerous tumor in the patient breast before inserting the needle. It can then become relatively uncertain that the tissue specimen removed during the biopsy actually belongs to the lesion of interest. A new method for guiding clinical breast biopsy is presented, based on a deformable finite element model of the breast. The geometry of the model is constructed from MR data, and its mechanical properties are modeled using a non-linear material model. This method allows imaging the breast without or with mild compression before the procedure, then compressing the breast and using the finite element model to predict the tumor.s position during the procedure in a total time of less than a half-hour.