INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING HYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY hys.Med.Biol.52(2007)419-427 10.1088/0031-9155/52/2008 Evaluation of x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer Chenglin Liu., Xiaohui Yan, Xinyi Zhang. 3, Wentao Yang+ Weijun Peng, Daren Shi, Peiping Zhu, Wanxia Huang and SyicharoKey Radation Rese arch enter, Physis aepatmens a pace pe res lbo at cy Physics Department of Yancheng Teachers'College, Yancheng 224002, People's Republic of 3 Shanghai Research Center of Acupuncture and Meridian, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of chin 4 Cancer Hospital, Medical Center of Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of E-mail: xy-zhang@fudan.edu. Received 8 March 2006, in final form 20 August 2006 Published 29 December 2006 Online at stacks. iop. org/PMB/52/419 The significance of the x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging(DEI) technique in the diagnosis of breast cancer and its feasibility in clinical medical imaging are evaluated. Different massive specimens including normal breast tissues, benign breast tumour tissues and malignant breast tumour tissues are imaged with the DEl method. The images are recorded respectively by CCD or x-ray film at different positions of the rocking curve and processed with a pixel- by-pixel algorithm. The characteristics of the DEl images about the normal and diseased tissues are compared. The rocking curves of a double-cryst diffractometer with various tissues are also studied. The differences in del images and their rocking curves are evaluated for early diagnosis of breast (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 1. Introduction Breast diseases are common for women and breast cancer is a dangerous killer(bothorel et al 1997). Early diagnosis and treatment are the best ways to reduce the hazard. Current procedures for the diagnosis of breast cancer mainly include self-examination, mammography (Feig 2002, Freedman et al 2003, Humphrey et al 2002), ultrasonography(US)(Shankar 0031-9155/07/020419+09S3000 2007 1OP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UKINSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY Phys. Med. Biol. 52 (2007) 419–427 doi:10.1088/0031-9155/52/2/008 Evaluation of x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer Chenglin Liu1,2, Xiaohui Yan1 , Xinyi Zhang1,3, Wentao Yang4 , Weijun Peng4 , Daren Shi4 , Peiping Zhu5 , Wanxia Huang5 and Qingxi Yuan5 1 Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Physics Department, Surface Physics Laboratory (National Key Laboratory) of Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People’s Republic of China 2 Physics Department of Yancheng Teachers’ College, Yancheng 224002, People’s Republic of China 3 Shanghai Research Center of Acupuncture and Meridian, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China 4 Cancer Hospital, Medical Center of Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, People’s Republic of China 5 Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, People’s Republic of China E-mail: xy-zhang@fudan.edu.cn Received 8 March 2006, in final form 20 August 2006 Published 29 December 2006 Online at stacks.iop.org/PMB/52/419 Abstract The significance of the x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) technique in the diagnosis of breast cancer and its feasibility in clinical medical imaging are evaluated. Different massive specimens including normal breast tissues, benign breast tumour tissues and malignant breast tumour tissues are imaged with the DEI method. The images are recorded respectively by CCD or x-ray film at different positions of the rocking curve and processed with a pixel￾by-pixel algorithm. The characteristics of the DEI images about the normal and diseased tissues are compared. The rocking curves of a double-crystal diffractometer with various tissues are also studied. The differences in DEI images and their rocking curves are evaluated for early diagnosis of breast cancers. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 1. Introduction Breast diseases are common for women and breast cancer is a dangerous killer (Bothorel et al 1997). Early diagnosis and treatment are the best ways to reduce the hazard. Current procedures for the diagnosis of breast cancer mainly include self-examination, mammography (Feig 2002, Freedman et al 2003, Humphrey et al 2002), ultrasonography (US) (Shankar 0031-9155/07/020419+09$30.00 © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 419