Breast cancer detection of large size to DCIS by hypoxia and angiogenesis using NIRS

This investigation aimed to test all tumor-bearing patients who undergo biopsy to see if angiogenesis and hypoxia can detect cancer. We used continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure blood hemoglobin concentration to obtain blood volume or total hemoglobin [Hb_tot] and oxygen saturation for the angiogenesis and hypoxic biomarkers. The contralateral breast was used as a reference to derive the difference from breast tumor as a difference in total hemoglobin Δ[HB_tot] and a difference in deoxygenation Δ([Hb]-[HbO2]). A total of 91 invasive cancers, 26 DCIS, 45 fibroblastomas, 96 benign tumors excluding cysts, and 67 normal breasts were examined from four hospitals. In larger-size tumors, there is significantly higher deoxygenation in invasive and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) than in that of benign tumors, but no significant difference was seen in smaller tumors of ≤ 1 cm. With the two parameters of high total hemoglobin and hypoxia score, the sensitivity and specificity of cancer detection were 60.3 % and 85.3 %, respectively. In summary, smaller-size tumors are difficult to detect with NIRS, whereas DCIS can be detected by the same total hemoglobin and hypoxic score in our study.