Accurate intraoperative identification of malignant tissue is a challenge in the surgical management of breast cancer. Imaging techniques that help address this challenge could contribute to more complete and accurate tumor excision, and thereby help reduce the current high re-excision rates without resorting to the removal of excess healthy tissue. Optical coherence micro-elastography (OCME) is a three-dimensional, high-resolution imaging technique that is sensitive to micro-scale variations of the mechanical properties of tissue. As tumor modifies the mechanical properties of breast tissue, OCME has the potential to identify, on the micro-scale, involved regions of fresh, unstained tissue. OCME is based on the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to measure tissue deformation in response to applied mechanical compression. In this feasibility study on 58 ex vivo samples from patients undergoing mastectomy or wide local excision, we demonstrate the performance of OCME as a means to visualize tissue microarchitecture in benign and malignant human breast tissues. Through comparison with corresponding histology and OCT images, OCME is shown to enable ready visualization of features such as ducts, lobules, micro-cysts, blood vessels and arterioles, and to identify invasive tumor through distinctive patterns in OCME images, often with enhanced contrast compared to OCT. These results lay the foundation for future intraoperative studies.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 February 2026.
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#56
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Altmetric has tracked 34,350,842 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 86th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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