Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for enhanced diagnostic precision in breast cancer

Abstract

Purpose: Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB), widely used for diagnosing breast cancer, is prone to sampling errors that may necessitate repeat procedures and delay treatment. Optically guided VABB using Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) may help address this limitation. Methods: To this end, an optical introducer (a cut-out 9-gauge hollow tube) was developed and equipped with optical fibers. The tube slides over a standard VABB needle, enabling tis- sue measurements near the biopsy aperture. Ex vivo DRS measurements were performed on lumpectomy specimens from 90 patients using this tube, yielding over 500 measurement loca- tions. Tissue labels were derived through deformable image registration of measurement sites with annotated histology, and label extraction was optimized for larger fiber distances. Machine learning classifiers were trained on the spectral data. Results: Ensemble models achieved up to 94% sensitivity at a 20% tumor threshold and maintained high performance at lower thresholds. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that DRS enables real-time tissue characterization at large fiber distances and may improve biopsy precision. In vivo studies are needed to validate performance and support the integration of DRS into routine VABB diagnostic workflows.