Tactile and hyperspectral imaging sensors for mammary tumor characterization

Abstract

In this paper, we developed and tested both a tactile as well as a hyperspectral imaging sensor, which exploit the physiological and mechanical changes that occur in malignant tumors. The use of both modalities (tactile and hyperspectral) increases the accuracy of identifying malignant tumors. Spontaneous mammary tumors in dogs were used to test our sensors. The sensitivity and specificity of the fused tactile and hyperspectral data is 67% and 83%, respectively. These imaging sensors will not only decrease the need for unnecessary surgery, but it will also facilitate and jump-start the development of a tactile and hyperspectral imaging sensor for human clinical use because of the similarities between human and canine breast cancer.