Diffuse optical tomography of the breast: a potential modifiable biomarker of breast cancer risk with neoadjuvant chemotherapy

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a diffuse optical tomography breast imaging system (DOTBIS) can provide a comparable optical-based image index of mammographic breast density, an established biomarker of breast cancer risk. Oxyhemoglobin concentration (ctO_2Hb) measured by DOTBIS was collected from 40 patients with stage II-III breast cancer. The tumor-free contralateral breast was used for this evaluation. We observed a moderate positive correlation between the patient’s mammogram density classification and ctO_2Hb, r_s = 0.486 (p = 0.001). In addition, significant reduction in ctO_2Hb levels were noted during neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment (p = 0.017). This observation indicates that ctO_2Hb levels measured by DOTBIS could be a novel modifiable imaging biomarker of breast cancer risk and warrants further investigation.