Optoacoustic imaging firm Seno Medical Instruments is directing attention to results from a clinical trial of its optoacoustic technology that were presented at the recent RSNA 2018 meeting in Chicago.
The study investigated the role of conventional grayscale ultrasound when combined with feature scoring of functional optoacoustic imaging-derived hemoglobin deoxygenation and angiogenesis. It showed that morphologic and functional optoacoustic imaging features can provide a noninvasive approach for differentiating molecular subtypes of breast cancer, according to the company.
Researchers led by presenter Dr. Basak Dogan of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied 2,105 women at 16 clinical sites. The women received prebiopsy optoacoustic imaging on Seno's Imagio breast imaging system for suspicious breast masses between December 2012 and September 2015.
Seven blinded readers then retrospectively scored internal and external optoacoustic imaging features of the lesions that had revealed invasive breast cancer on needle biopsy. The researchers concluded that optoacoustic imaging features may serve as imaging biomarkers for predicting cancer molecular phenotypes, helping to establish the diagnosis of breast cancer and also to distinguish cancers that have a poor prognosis from those with a good prognosis.
The results are an important step forward for noninvasively optimizing treatment regimens for the unique molecular profile of each woman's cancer, according to Dogan.
"Furthermore, it is a great opportunity to assess the cancer three-dimensionally instead of making treatment decisions based on small biopsy samples," she said in a statement from Seno Medical. "[Optoacoustic imaging] has the potential to improve treatment outcomes for women with invasive breast cancer."
