ABSTRACT
After several years of studies focusing on validating the reconstruction algorithms using phantom experiments, a race between laboratories worldwide for in vivo breast cancer imaging was on the horizon around 1999. Colak et al. from Phillips Research reported the rst set of absorption images from clinical data in 1999 (Colak et al. 1999). Ntziachristos et al. (2000) from the laboratories of Britton Chance and Arjun Yodh of University of Pennsylvania presented the rst in vivo differential absorption images after the administration of indocyanine green (ICG) for contrast enhancement. Pogue et al. (2001) from the laboratory of Keith Paulsen of Dartmouth, New Hampshire, showed the rst in vivo hemoglobin images derived from the absorption images at two different wavelengths in the near-infrared (NIR) region. Our laboratory at Clemson University, South Carolina, provided the rst in vivo recovery of both absorption and scattering images and the rst in vivo three-dimensional (3D) absorption images (Sections 8.2.1 and 8.2.2). We also showed the ability of diffuse optical tomography (DOT) for differentiating cysts from solid tumors (Section 8.2.3) and for providing functional images (Section 8.2.4). We completed the initial in vivo evaluation of phase-contrast and cellular DOT approaches (Sections 8.2.5 and 8.2.6). We also started to evaluate the efcacy of DOT for monitoring neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Section 8.2.7). In the area of breast imaging, laboratories, including ours, are currently conducting clinical trials with relatively large scales. I envision that results from these large clinical trials will be reported in the near future.
