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Objective Male breast cancer (MBC) is rare. Information about breast cancer is usually designed for female patients. However, in males this disease and some side effects differ from its female counterpart. Therefore, there is a need for male‐specific information. The aim was to assess unmet information needs of (a) MBC patients and (b) health professionals. Methods Dutch MBC patients (diagnosed between 2011 and 2016 in 21 hospitals), patient advocates and partners were invited to participate in focus groups and/or complete a paper‐based questionnaire on information needs. In addition, an online questionnaire on information needs was sent to health professionals involved in MBC patient care. Results In three focus groups with MBC patients (N = 12) and partners (N = 2) the following unmet information themes were identified: patients' experiences/photographs, symptoms, (delay of) diagnosis, treatments, side effects, follow‐up, psychological impact/coping, genetics and family, research and raising awareness. 77 of 107 MBC patients (72%) completed the questionnaire: most patients lacked information about acute (65%) or late (56%) side effects, particularly sexual side effects. Among health professionals, 110 of 139 (79%) had searched for MBC‐related information, specifically: patient information, anti‐hormonal therapy, genetic testing, research, and psychosocial issues. Conclusions Unmet information needs in MBC patients and health professionals were identified. Specific information on MBC should be developed to improve timely diagnosis, quality of life, treatment, and survival. A targeted website is an ideal tool to meet these needs. Therefore, we integrated these results into a user‐centered design to develop an informative website, www.mannenmetborstkanker.nl.

Objective: Unmet health care needs require additional care resources to achieve optimal patient well-being. In this nationwide study we examined associations between a number of risk factors and unmet needs after treatment among women with breast cancer, while taking into account their health care practices. We expected that more care use would be associated with lower levels of unmet needs. Methods: A multicenter, prospective, observational design was employed. Women with primary breast cancer completed questionnaires 6 and 15 months post-diagnosis. Medical data were retrieved from medical records. Direct and indirect associations between sociodemographic and clinical risk factors, distress, care use, and unmet needs were investigated with structural equation modeling. Results: Seven hundred forty-six participants completed both questionnaires (response rate 73.7%). The care services received were not negatively associated with the reported levels of unmet needs after treatment. Comorbidity was associated with higher physical and daily living needs. Higher age was associated with higher health system-related and informational needs. Having had chemotherapy and a mastectomy were associated with higher sexuality needs and breast cancer-specific issues, respectively. A higher level of distress was associated with higher levels of unmet need in all domains. Conclusions: Clinicians may use these results to timely identify which women are at risk of developing specific unmet needs after treatment. Evidence-based, cost-effective (online) interventions that target distress, the most influential risk factor, should be further implemented and disseminated among patients and clinicians.

Objective: This study examined the course and predictors of supportive care needs among Mexican breast cancer patients for different cancer treatment trajectories.Methods: Data from 172 (66.4% response rate) patients were considered in this observational longitudinal study. Participants were measured after diagnosis, neoadjuvant treatment, surgery, adjuvant treatment, and the first post-treatment follow-up visit. Psychological, Health System and Information, Physical and Daily Living, Patient Care and Support, Sexual, and Additional care needs were measured with the Supportive Care Needs Survey (SCNS-SF34). Linear mixed models with maximum-likelihood estimation were computed.Results: The course of supportive care needs was similar across the different cancer treatment trajectories. Supportive care needs declined significantly from diagnosis to the first post-treatment follow-up visit. Health System and Information care needs were the highest needs over time. Depressive symptoms and time since diagnosis were the most consistent predictors of changes in course of supportive care needs of these patients.Conclusions: Health system and information care needs of Mexican breast cancer patients need to be addressed with priority because these needs are the least met. Furthermore, patients with high depressive symptoms at the start of the disease trajectory have greater needs for supportive care throughout the disease trajectory.

Significance: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is widely used as a potential diagnostic tool for a variety of diseases including various types of cancer. However, sensitivity and specificity analyses of OCT in different cancers yield results varying from 11% to 100%. Hence, there is a need for more detailed statistical analysis of blinded reader studies. Aim: Extensive statistical analysis is performed on results from a blinded study involving OCT of breast tumor margins to assess the impact of reader variability on sensitivity and specificity. Approach: Five readers with varying levels of experience reading OCT images assessed 50 OCT images of breast tumor margins collected using an intraoperative OCT system. Statistical modeling and analysis was performed using the R language to analyze reader experience and variability. Results: Statistical analysis showed that the readers’ prior experience with OCT images was directly related to the probability of the readers’ assessment agreeing with histology. Additionally, results from readers with prior experience specific to OCT in breast cancer had a higher probability of agreement with histology compared to readers with experience with OCT in other (noncancer) diseases. Conclusions: The results from this study demonstrate the potential impact of reader training and experience in the assessment of sensitivity and specificity. They also demonstrate even greater potential improvement in diagnostic performance by combining results from multiple readers. These preliminary findings suggest valuable directions for further study.

This study investigated whether valproic acid (VPA, a histone deacetylase inhibitor) can interfere with the carcinogenicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A typical representative compound of PAHs, 7,12-Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA), was used to induce rat breast cancer. The results showed that therapeutic concentration of VPA (50 and 100 mg/kg) delayed the occurrence of tumors, reduced tumor formation rate and attenuated tumors growth, and have a protective effect on normal tissues. The macrophage-mediated inflammatory response was found to be associated with the observed effect of VPA. In addition, we screened and validated a possible gene, Sema3c, which was involved in DMBA-induced breast cancer development and can be inhibited by VPA.

OBJECTIVE: Troublesome hot flushes and night sweats (HFNS) are experienced by many women after treatment for breast cancer, impacting significantly on sleep and quality of life. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is known to be effective for the alleviation of HFNS. However, it is not known if it can effectively be delivered by specialist nurses. We investigated whether group CBT, delivered by breast care nurses (BCNs), can reduce the impact of HFNS.METHODS: We recruited women with primary breast cancer following primary treatment with seven or more HFNS/week (including 4/10 or above on the HFNS problem rating scale), from six UK hospitals to an open, randomised, phase 3 effectiveness trial. Participants were randomised to Group CBT or usual care (UC). The primary endpoint was HFNS problem rating at 26 weeks after randomisation. Secondary outcomes included sleep, depression, anxiety and quality of life.RESULTS: Between 2017 and 2018, 130 participants were recruited (CBT:63, control:67). We found a 46% (6.9-3.7) reduction in the mean HFNS problem rating score from randomisation to 26 weeks in the CBT arm and a 15% (6.5-5.5) reduction in the UC arm (adjusted mean difference -1.96, CI -3.68 to -0.23, P = .039). Secondary outcomes, including frequency of HFNS, sleep, anxiety and depression all improved significantly.CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that specialist nurses can be trained to deliver CBT effectively to alleviate troublesome menopausal hot flushes in women following breast cancer in the NHS setting.

Objective: We investigated the effectiveness of a self-help intervention named PERANTARA, which aims to improve adherence to diagnostic procedures among women with breast cancer (BC) symptoms to reduce the time to a definitive diagnosis. Methods: With a cluster randomized crossover design across four hospitals, PERANTARA and treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU only was provided at successive periods in a randomly determined order. The main outcome was the time between the first medical consultation and the definitive diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were BC knowledge, measured by the Breast Cancer Knowledge Test (BCKT); symptoms of anxiety and depression, measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); quality of life, measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF); and health status, measured by the EQ-5D-5L. A linear mixed model analysis was conducted to analyse the outcomes. Results: We recruited 132 women with BC symptoms from four hospitals; 67 participants were in the intervention group, and 65 participants were in the control group. PERANTARA reduced the time to definitive diagnosis by 13.3 days (M [SD]: 25.90 [23.20] in the intervention group vs 39.29 [35.10] in the control group; mean difference = −13.26, 95% CI = −24.51 to −2.00, P =.02). No significant difference was found between the groups in BC knowledge, symptoms of anxiety, depression, quality of life, or health status. Conclusions: PERANTARA reduced the time to definitive diagnosis among Indonesian women with BC symptoms. Psychoeducation may be an important addition to regular BC care to prevent undue delays in diagnostic procedures.

Purpose:\ud \ud The pattern of dense tissue on a mammogram appears to provide additional information than overall density for risk assessment, but there has been little consistency in measures of texture identified. The purpose of this study is thus to validate a mammographic texture feature developed from a previous study in a new setting.\ud \ud Approach:\ud \ud A case–control study (316 invasive cases and 1339 controls) of women in Virginia, USA was used to validate a mammographic texture feature (MMTEXT) derived in a independent previous study. Analysis of predictive ability was adjusted for age, demographic factors, questionnaire risk factors (combined through the Tyrer-Cuzick model), and optionally BI-RADS breast density. Odds ratios per interquartile range (IQ-OR) in controls were estimated. Subgroup analysis assessed heterogeneity by mode of cancer detection (94 not detected by mammography).\ud \ud Results:\ud \ud MMTEXT was not a significant risk factor at 0.05 level after adjusting for classical risk factors (IQ-OR = 1.16, 95%CI 0.92 to 1.46), nor after further adjustment for BI-RADS density (IQ-OR = 0.92, 95%CI 0.76 to 1.10). There was weak evidence that MMTEXT was more predictive for cancers that were not detected by mammography (unadjusted for density: IQ-OR = 1.46, 95%CI 0.99 to 2.15 versus 1.03, 95%CI 0.79 to 1.35, Phet 0.10; adjusted for density: IQ-OR = 1.11, 95%CI 0.70 to 1.77 versus 0.76, 95%CI 0.55 to 1.05, Phet 0.21).\ud \ud Conclusions:\ud \ud MMTEXT is unlikely to be a useful imaging marker for invasive breast cancer risk assessment in women attending mammography screening. Future studies may benefit from a larger sample size to confirm this as well as developing and validating other measures of risk. This negative finding demonstrates the importance of external validation.

Purpose: Computer-aided detection (CAD) alerts radiologists to findings potentially associated with breast cancer but is notorious for creating false-positive marks. Although a previous paper found that radiologists took more time to interpret mammograms with more CAD marks, our impression was that this was not true in actual interpretation. We hypothesized that radiologists would selectively disregard these marks when present in larger numbers. Approach: We performed a retrospective review of bilateral digital screening mammograms. We use a mixed linear regression model to assess the relationship between number of CAD marks and ln (interpretation time) after adjustment for covariates. Both readers and mammograms were treated as random sampling units. Results: Ten radiologists, with median experience after residency of 12.5 years (range 6 to 24) interpreted 1832 mammograms. After accounting for number of images, Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System category, and breast density, the number of CAD marks was positively associated with longer interpretation time, with each additional CAD mark proportionally increasing median interpretation time by 4.35% for a typical reader. Conclusions: We found no support for our hypothesis that radiologists will selectively disregard CAD marks when they are present in larger numbers.

Significance: A key risk faced by oncological surgeons continues to be complete removal of tumor. Currently, there is no intraoperative imaging device to detect kidney tumors during excision. Aim: We are evaluating molecular chemical imaging (MCI) as a technology for real-time tumor detection and margin assessment during tumor removal surgeries. Approach: In exploratory studies, we evaluate visible near infrared (Vis-NIR) MCI for differentiating tumor from adjacent tissue in ex vivo human kidney specimens, and in anaesthetized mice with breast or lung tumor xenografts. Differentiation of tumor from nontumor tissues is made possible with diffuse reflectance spectroscopic signatures and hyperspectral imaging technology. Tumor detection is achieved by score image generation to localize the tumor, followed by application of computer vision algorithms to define tumor border. Results: Performance of a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) model for kidney tumor in a 22-patient study is 0.96 for area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. A PLS-DA model for in vivo breast and lung tumor xenografts performs with 100% sensitivity, 83% specificity, and 89% accuracy. Conclusion: Detection of cancer in surgically resected human kidney tissues is demonstrated ex vivo with Vis-NIR MCI, and in vivo on mice with breast or lung xenografts.

Significance: We introduce an application of machine learning trained on optical phase features of epithelial and mesenchymal cells to grade cancer cells’ morphologies, relevant to evaluation of cancer phenotype in screening assays and clinical biopsies. Aim: Our objective was to determine quantitative epithelial and mesenchymal qualities of breast cancer cells through an unbiased, generalizable, and linear score covering the range of observed morphologies. Approach: Digital holographic microscopy was used to generate phase height maps of noncancerous epithelial (Gie-No3B11) and fibroblast (human gingival) cell lines, as well as MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. Several machine learning algorithms were evaluated as binary classifiers of the noncancerous cells that graded the cancer cells by transfer learning. Results: Epithelial and mesenchymal cells were classified with 96% to 100% accuracy. Breast cancer cells had scores in between the noncancer scores, indicating both epithelial and mesenchymal morphological qualities. The MCF-7 cells skewed toward epithelial scores, while MDA-MB-231 cells skewed toward mesenchymal scores. Linear support vector machines (SVMs) produced the most distinct score distributions for each cell line. Conclusions: The proposed epithelial–mesenchymal score, derived from linear SVM learning, is a sensitive and quantitative approach for detecting epithelial and mesenchymal characteristics of unknown cells based on well-characterized cell lines. We establish a framework for rapid and accurate morphological evaluation of single cells and subtle phenotypic shifts in imaged cell populations.

PubMed: 31983145 Obesity is associated with a higher risk of developing breast cancer and with worse disease outcomes for women of all ages. The composition, density, and organization of the breast tissue stroma are also known to play an important role in the development and progression of the disease. However, the connections between obesity and stromal remodeling are not well understood. We sought to characterize detailed organization features of the collagen matrix within healthy and cancerous breast tissues acquired from mice exposed to either a normal or high fat (obesity inducing) diet. We performed second-harmonic generation and spectral two-photon excited fluorescence imaging, and we extracted the level of collagen-associated fluorescence (CAF) along with metrics of collagen content, three-dimensional, and two-dimensional organization. There were significant differences in the CAF intensity and overall collagen organization between normal and tumor tissues; however, obesity-enhanced changes in these metrics, especially when three-dimensional organization metrics were considered. Thus, our studies indicate that obesity impacts significantly collagen organization and structure and the related pathways of communication may be important future therapeutic targets..

Objective Internet‐delivered interventions may alleviate distress in cancer survivors with limited access to psychological face‐to‐face treatment. In collaboration with a group of cancer survivors, we developed and tested the efficacy of a therapist‐assisted internet‐delivered mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (iMBCT) program for anxiety and depression in cancer survivors. Methods A total of 1282 cancer survivors were screened for anxiety and depression during their routine oncology follow‐up; eligible breast (n = 137) and prostate cancer (n = 13) survivors were randomized to iMBCT or care‐as‐usual (CAU) wait‐list. Primary outcomes of anxiety and depression were assessed at baseline, 5 weeks, 10 weeks (post intervention), and 6 months. Results Significant effects were found for both anxiety (Cohen's d = 0.45; P = .017) and depressive symptoms (d = 0.42; P = .024) post intervention. The effects were maintained at follow‐up for anxiety (d = 0.40; P = .029), but not for depressive symptoms (d = 0.28; P = .131). Conclusions Our preliminary findings suggest iMBCT to be a helpful intervention for cancer survivors suffering from symptoms of anxiety. Further studies on the efficacy for symptoms of depression are needed.

Inexpensive near-infrared microscopy (NIRM) was developed as a convenient technique to detect the medulla loss of scalp hair while reducing analytical time with easy sample preparation, leading to a field screening tool for breast cancer. NIRM has been evaluated as an alternative to synchrotron-based nanoscopy and to the relatively expensive method of conventional infrared microscopy to determine the degree and pattern of medulla loss of scalp hairs of patients with breast cancer and benign diseases, as well as normal healthy individuals. NIR imaging showed a strong, scattering-based hyperintense contrast of the medulla compared to the fully attenuated cortex in medullated healthy hair. Complete medulla loss (CML) per hair strand was more extensively (60.9 ± 10.2 %) (p

© 2018 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Objective: Despite the physical and psychological health benefits associated with physical activity (PA) for breast cancer (BC) survivors, up to 70% of female BC survivors are not meeting minimum recommended PA guidelines. The objective of this study was to evaluate acceptability and satisfaction with Project MOVE, an innovative approach to increase PA among BC survivors through the combination of microgrants and financial incentives. Methods: A mixed-methods design was used. Participants were BC survivors and support individuals with a mean age of 58.5 years. At 6-month follow-up, participants completed a program evaluation questionnaire (n = 72) and participated in focus groups (n = 52) to explore their experience with Project MOVE. Results: Participants reported that they were satisfied with Project MOVE (86.6%) and that the program was appropriate for BC survivors (96.3%). Four main themes emerged from focus groups: (1) acceptability and satisfaction of Project MOVE, detailing the value of the model in developing tailored group-base PA programs; (2) the importance of Project MOVE leaders, highlighting the value of a leader that was organized and a good communicator; (3) breaking down barriers with Project MOVE, describing how the program helped to address common BC related barriers; and (4) motivation to MOVE, outlining how the microgrants enabled survivors to be active, while the financial incentive motivated them to increase and maintain their PA. Conclusion: The findings provide support for the acceptability of Project MOVE as a strategy for increasing PA among BC survivors.

OBJECTIVE: Patients and partners both cope individually and as a dyad with challenges related to a breast cancer diagnosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a psychological attachment-oriented couple intervention for breast cancer patients and partners in the early treatment phase.METHODS: A randomised controlled trial including 198 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients and their partners. Couples were randomised to the Hand in Hand (HiH) intervention in addition to usual care or to usual care only. Self-report assessments were conducted for both patients and partners at baseline, postintervention (5 months), and follow-up (10 months), assessing cancer-related distress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and dyadic adjustment. Patients' cancer-related distress was the primary outcome.RESULTS: Cancer-related distress decreased over time in both patients and partners, but the intervention did not significantly affect this decrease at postintervention (P = .08) or follow-up (P = .71). A significant positive effect was found on dyadic adjustment at follow-up for both patients (P = .04) and partners (P = .02).CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant effect of the HiH intervention cancer-related distress. The results suggest that most couples can cope with cancer-related distress in the context of usual care. However, the positive effect on dyadic adjustment implies that the HiH intervention benefitted both patients and partners. Future studies should investigate how to integrate a couple focus in usual cancer care to improve dyadic coping in the early treatment phase.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is routinely administered to subsets of breast cancer patients, including triple negative (TN) or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) cancers. After NACT and subsequent surgical resection, 5% to 30% of patients have no residual invasive carcinoma, termed pathological complete response. Unfortunately, many patients experience little-to-no response after NACT and unnecessarily suffer its side effects. Methods are needed to predict an individual patient’s response to NACT. Core needle biopsies, taken before NACT, consist of tumor cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix. We performed second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of fibrillar collagen in core needle biopsy sections as a possible predictor of response to NACT. The ratio of forward-to-backward scattering (F/B) SHG was assessed in the “tumor bulk” and “tumor–host interface” in HER2+ and TN core needle biopsy sections. Patient response was classified post-treatment using the Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) score. In HER2+ biopsies, RCB class was associated with F/B derived from the tumor–stromal interface, but not tumor bulk. F/B was not associated with RCB class in TN biopsies. These findings suggest that F/B from needle biopsy sections may be a useful predictor of which patients will respond favorably to NACT, with the potential to help reduce overtreatment.

Objective Medical cancer treatment is often accompanied by appearance‐related side effects such as hair loss, skin irritation, and paleness, which can subsequently lead to psychosocial distress. Initial evidence suggests that beauty care interventions may reduce distress and improve quality of life (QoL), body image, and self‐esteem immediately. Methods We investigated the effects of a brief beauty care intervention on self‐reported symptoms of depression, quality of life, body image, and self‐esteem in 39 female primary breast cancer patients with appearance‐related treatment side effects. Patients were randomly assigned either to an immediate intervention group (IG) or to a wait‐list control (WL). The intervention consisted of a single‐session group makeup workshop, a photo shooting, and of receiving professionally edited portrait and upper‐body photos. Results While groups did not differ regarding any measure at the pretreatment baseline assessment, IG patients reported less symptoms of depression, higher QoL, and higher self‐esteem compared with baseline and compared with WL. Follow‐up at 8 weeks indicated moderate stability of these improvements. Conclusions In contrast to previous research, results indicate beneficial short‐term and midterm effects of beauty care on psychological outcomes in patients with early breast cancer. These results emphasize the utility of this type of brief, low‐cost intervention in women undergoing medical cancer treatment in order to improve their well‐being.

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) can discriminate different tissue types based on optical characteristics. Since this technology has the ability to detect tumor tissue, several groups have proposed to use DRS for margin assessment during breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer. Nowadays, an increasing number of patients with breast cancer are being treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Limited research has been published on the influence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on the optical characteristics of the tissue. Hence, it is unclear whether margin assessment based on DRS is feasible in this specific group of patients. We investigate whether there is an effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on optical measurements of breast tissue. To this end, DRS measurements were performed on 92 ex-vivo breast specimens from 92 patients, treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and without neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were generated, comparing the measurements of patients with and without neoadjuvant chemotherapy in datasets of different tissue types using a significance level of 5%. As input for the GEE models, either the intensity at a specific wavelength or a fit parameter, derived from the spectrum, was used. In the evaluation of the intensity, no influence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy was found, since none of the wavelengths were significantly different between the measurements with and the measurements without neoadjuvant chemotherapy in any of the datasets. These results were confirmed by the analysis of the fit parameters, which showed a significant difference for the amount of collagen in only one dataset. All other fit parameters were not significant for any of the datasets. These findings may indicate that assessment of the resection margin with DRS is also feasible in the growing population of breast cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, it is possible that we did not detect neoadjuvant chemotherapy effect in the some of the datasets due to the small number of measurements in those datasets.

Objective A dearth of studies focusing on young women (

Aims—Chromosome 3p allele loss is a frequent event in many common sporadic cancers including lung, breast, kidney, ovarian, and head and neck cancer. To analyse the extent and frequency of 3p allelic losses in T1N0 and T1N1 invasive sporadic breast cancer, 19 microsatellite markers spread along 3p were analysed in 40 such breast carcinomas with known clinicopathological parameters. Methods—Loss of heterozygosity analysis was carried out using 3p microsatellite markers that were non-randomly distributed and chosen to represent regions that show hemizygous and/or homozygous losses in lung cancer (lung cancer tumour suppressor gene region 1 ( LCTSGR1) at 3p21.3 and LCTSGR2 at 3p12), and regions demonstrating suppression of tumorigenicity in breast, kidney, lung, and ovarian cancer. Results—Allelic loss was seen at one or more loci in 22 of these clinically early stage sporadic breast tumours, but none had complete 3p allele loss. Several regions with non-overlapping deletions were defined, namely: (1) 18 tumours showed loss at 3p21–22, a physical distance of 12 Mb; (2) 11 tumours showed loss at 3p12 within a physical distance of 1 Mb, this region is contained within LCTSGR2; (3) six tumours showed loss at 3p25–24, including the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) locus; (4) five tumours showed loss at 3p14.2, including the fragile histidine triad (FHIT) locus. Conclusions—This is the largest study to date defining the extent and range of 3p allelic losses in early stage invasive breast cancer and the results indicate that region 3p21–22 containing LCTSGR1 and a region at 3p12 within LCTSGR2 are the most frequent sites of 3p allelic loss in these breast carcinomas. This suggests that tumour suppressor genes located in these regions may play important roles in the development of breast cancer. There was an association between increasing 3p allelic loss and increasing tumour grade and loss of progesterone (p = 0.0098) and oestrogen (p = 0.0472) receptor expression, indicating a link between 3p allelic loss and the regulation of differentiation.

We present the Twente Photoacoustic Mammoscope 2, a photoacoustic breast imaging system employing a tomographic configuration. It images one breast pendant inside an imaging tank filled with water while a woman lies prone on a bed. A dual-head laser (755 and 1064 nm) illuminates the breast with one beam directed at the nipple and nine beams directed at the sides. Ultrasound signals are detected using 12 arc-shaped arrays, each curving along the pendant breast. Each array comprises 32 piezocomposite elements each with a center frequency of 1 MHz. The imaging tank and the ultrasound arrays rotate around the breast in steps to obtain additional multiple projections. Three-dimensional images are reconstructed using a filtered backprojection algorithm. The system is described in detail, and measurements on a test object are presented. As part of a preliminary study to assess the system’s in vivo performance, the breasts of two healthy volunteers were imaged. These images show the breast contour, the nipple, and the vascular anatomy within the breast. In the nipple of one case, multiple high-intensity “hot spots” are observed, which we suspect are associated with the lactiferous ducts terminating in the nipple.