Hypoxia-correlated functional photoacoustic tomography enhances breast tumor detection
- 1Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 138-78, Pasadena, 91125, CA, USA
- 2Department of Surgery, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, 91010, CA, USA
- 3Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., MC 138-78, Pasadena, 91125, CA, USA; Corresponding author.
Abstract
Breast photoacoustic tomography (PAT) enables noninvasive vascular imaging with high spatial resolution and optical contrast, but most prior studies have focused on static anatomy rather than functional dynamics. We introduce hypoxia-correlation functional PAT (hc-PAT), which leverages the abnormal vascular reactivity of malignant tumors. Participants underwent alternating breath-holding and normal breathing to induce transient systemic hypoxia, monitored by pulse oximetry. Simultaneous hc-PAT imaging was performed, and voxel-wise correlation with the oxygenation waveform generated functional maps. Malignant tumors showed significantly higher correlation coefficients than surrounding tissue, clearly delineating lesions consistent with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tumor pathophysiology. Quantitative analysis revealed greater inter-breast asymmetry in malignant versus benign cases ( p ∼ 0.014 ). hc-PAT also sensitively tracked response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, showing reduced hypoxia reactivity alongside MRI-confirmed tumor shrinkage. This pilot study demonstrates that hc-PAT can enhance breast cancer detection using endogenous functional contrast, suggesting the potential for sensitive, injection-free functional imaging that warrants validation in larger cohorts.
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BibTeX
@article{tong2026hypoxiacorrelated,
title = {{Hypoxia-correlated functional photoacoustic tomography enhances breast tumor detection}},
author = {Xin Tong and Cindy Z. Liu and Geng Ku and Stephanie Delos Santos and Marta Invernizzi and Lisa D. Yee and Lily L. Lai and Lihong V. Wang},
journal = {Photoacoustics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.pacs.2026.100897},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacs.2026.100897},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hypoxia-correlated functional photoacoustic tomography enhances breast tumor detection
AU - Xin Tong
AU - Cindy Z. Liu
AU - Geng Ku
AU - Stephanie Delos Santos
AU - Marta Invernizzi
AU - Lisa D. Yee
AU - Lily L. Lai
AU - Lihong V. Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/17
JO - Photoacoustics
DO - 10.1016/j.pacs.2026.100897
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacs.2026.100897
AB - Breast photoacoustic tomography (PAT) enables noninvasive vascular imaging with high spatial resolution and optical contrast, but most prior studies have focused on static anatomy rather than functional dynamics. We introduce hypoxia-correlation functional PAT (hc-PAT), which leverages the abnormal vascular reactivity of malignant tumors. Participants underwent alternating breath-holding and normal breathing to induce transient systemic hypoxia, monitored by pulse oximetry. Simultaneous hc-PAT imaging was performed, and voxel-wise correlation with the oxygenation waveform generated functional maps. Malignant tumors showed significantly higher correlation coefficients than surrounding tissue, clearly delineating lesions consistent with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tumor pathophysiology. Quantitative analysis revealed greater inter-breast asymmetry in malignant versus benign cases ( p ∼ 0.014 ). hc-PAT also sensitively tracked response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, showing reduced hypoxia reactivity alongside MRI-confirmed tumor shrinkage. This pilot study demonstrates that hc-PAT can enhance breast cancer detection using endogenous functional contrast, suggesting the potential for sensitive, injection-free functional imaging that warrants validation in larger cohorts.
SN - 2213-5979
ER -