Breast diagnostic apparatus for fused SPECT, PET, x-ray CT, and optical surface imaging of breast cancer

摘要

A new method of breast imaging to improve the detection of cancer during early stages of development is disclosed. The system combines molecular images of radioisotope uptake in cancerous cells with three dimensional high resolution single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), x-ray computed tomography (CT) and optical reflectance and emission (ORE) images of the breast. The system acquires data from nuclear isotopes within the breast and processes the data into three dimensional molecular tomographic images of cancerous cellular activity, morphological three dimensional x-ray density tomographic images and three dimensional optical surface images. These three sets of images or data are then combined to provide information as to the sensitivity and specificity as to the type of cancer present, three dimensional information as to the physical location of the cancer and reference information for radiologists, surgeons, oncologists and patients in order to plan stereo-tactic biopsy, minimally invasive surgery and image guided therapy, if necessary.