Infrared Imager Requirements for Breast Cancer Detection

Infrared imaging was introduced into medicine in the late 1950s, early studies suggested there were applications of the technology in areas as diverse as detection of breast cancer and malfunctions of the nervous system, however the early instrumentation was not sensitive enough to detect the subtle changes in temperature needed to accurately detect and monitor disease. In recent years the sensitivity of infrared instruments has greatly improved. In this paper the bioheat transfer equation is solved for a simplified model of a female breast and a cancerous tumor in order to quantify the minimum size of a tumor or the maximum depth of a certain sized tumor that a modern state-of-the-art imager can detect. Finite element simulations showed that current state-of-the-art imagers are capable of detecting 3 cm tumors located deeper than 7 cm from the skin surface and tumors smaller than 0.5 cm can be detected if they are close to the surface of the skin.