ABSTRACT
A number of imaging and nonimaging-based breast abnormality detection or cancer screening technologies have been investigated as the alternative and/or adjunct approaches to the mammography (Chapter 1) in order to improve the performance and e–- cacy of breast cancer screening and early detection (Chapter 7). Among them, electrical impedance (EI) property of breast tissue has been recognized and proved as potentially useful biomarker that directly relates to the biological processes of developing breast abnormalities and/or cancer at the molecular or cellular levels. EI technology is also a safe (nonradiation), possibly noninvasive, low cost, fast (real time), and easily implemented cancer screening method. Hence, EI technology has been investigated and evaluated by a number of research groups around the world for the purpose of developing better or more sensitive systems and screening approaches to detect breast abnormalities or classify suspicious breast lesions. ™is chapter reviews the basic concept of applying EI technology to distinguish between normal and malignant breast tissue as well as the development and evaluation of two noninvasive EI approaches namely, electronic impedance tomography (EIT) and electronic impedance spectroscopy (EIS), to detect breast abnormalities or cancer by generating EI tomography or mapped images as well as multifrequency EI scanned sweep signals. ™e potential advantages and limitations of current EI technology, as well as its future perspectives, in detecting breast cancer are also discussed.
