Advancing Optical Imaging for Breast Margin Assessment: An Analysis of Excisional Time, Cautery, and Patent Blue Dye on Underlying Sources of Contrast

Breast conserving surgery (BCS) is a recommended treatment for breast cancer patients where the goal is to remove the tumor and a surrounding rim of normal tissue. Unfortunately, a high percentage of patients return for additional surgeries to remove all of the cancer. Post-operative pathology is the gold standard for evaluating BCS margins but is limited due to the amount of tissue that can be sampled. Frozen section analysis and touch-preparation cytology have been proposed to address the surgical needs but also have sampling limitations. These issues represent an unmet clinical need for guidance in resecting malignant tissue intra-operatively and for pathological sampling. We have developed a quantitative spectral imaging device to examine margins intra-operatively. The context in which this technology is applied (intra-operative or post-operative setting) is influenced by time after excision and surgical factors including cautery and the presence of patent blue dye (specifically Lymphazurin™, used for sentinel lymph node mapping). Optical endpoints of hemoglobin ([THb]), fat ([β-carotene]), and fibroglandular content via light scattering (<µ(s)’>) measurements were quantified from diffuse reflectance spectra of lumpectomy and mastectomy specimens using a Monte Carlo model. A linear longitudinal mixed-effects model was used to fit the optical endpoints for the cautery and kinetics studies. Monte Carlo simulations and tissue mimicking phantoms were used for the patent blue dye experiments. [THb], [β-carotene], and <µ(s)’> were affected by <3.3% error with <80 µM of patent blue dye. The percent change in [β-carotene], <µ(s)’>, and [β-carotene]/<µ(s)’> was <14% in 30 minutes, while percent change in [THb] was >40%. [β-carotene] and [β-carotene]/<µ(s)’> were the only parameters not affected by cautery. This work demonstrates the importance of understanding the post-excision kinetics of ex-vivo tissue and the presence of cautery and patent blue dye for breast tumor margin assessment, to accurately interpret data and exploit underling sources of contrast.