Image Analysis

Breast Cancer Imaging

Andrew Mehnert
Phone: 58312
Office: 78-523

homepage

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the most common cause of cancer-related death in Australian women. Recent national figures show that a woman has a 1 in 11 chance of developing breast cancer before the age of 75. In fact more than 11,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and more than 2500 women die from the disease annually. X-ray mammography plays a key role in breast cancer screening programs worldwide. Nevertheless, the test is known to have several shortcomings including an overall false-negative rate of about 20% (with that figure rising in premenopausal and high-risk women) and a low sensitivity to small cancers. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an alternative imaging modality that shows promise for improved breast cancer screening. Significantly, in comparison to existing tests it has been shown to have possibly the highest sensitivity to invasive cancer and multifocal disease. It is also the most reliable method for assessing tumour size and extent, compared to gold standard histopathology. The disadvantage of MRI, however, is that its specificity is poor; only 1 in 3 cases recommended for biopsy for a suspicious MRI finding actually have a cancer.

This research aims to improve the specificity (and possibly sensitivity) of breast MRI, and therefore its clinical utility, by integrating information about tissue enhancement, morphology, and microstructure obtained from spatially aligned intrinsic contrast T1- and T2- weighted images, dynamic contrast enhanced T1-weighted images, and diffusion-weighted images; and by reducing the subjectivity in routine clinical interpretation of breast MRI data by means of computer visualisation, haptic interaction, image analysis, and pattern recognition based on quantitative measurements of the MRI data