Contact Person

Jöran Rixen

Project Description

Breast cancer is the deadliest form of cancer in women. Early detection of the tumour can significantly increase the chance of survival. Even though there is a screening service for women aged 50 to 69 in Germany, not all women take advantage of it. The most common reason for not taking up the offer is pain during the screening. During mammography, the breast is compressed, which the majority of women find painful. In addition, the effectiveness of X-ray mammography is reduced if the breast tissue is particularly dense. The alternative ultrasound also brings problems with it, for example, the success of the ultrasound examination is very dependent on the skills of the person performing the examination.  To compensate for these disadvantages, we are investigating Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) as an alternative to mammography in the project Integration Breast Cancer Diagnosis with Minimally Invasive Laser Therapy (InDiThera).
EIT is a technique that can reconstruct the distribution of resistance by injecting small currents into the body and measuring the potentials around the body. Different types of tissue have different resistances, for example bone has a particularly high resistance and blood a particularly low resistance. Tumours in the breast, for example, have a low resistance. This makes it possible to detect tumours with the help of EIT. The advantage of EIT is that it does not require compression of the breast. The electrodes only need contact with the skin, they do not need to be pressed on.
We are investigating different reconstruction strategies for the successful reconstruction of tumours. We use analytical methods such as the least squares method together with the Gauss-Newton method, but also modern methods such as artificial neural networks.

Project Goals

• Research into suitable reconstruction methods

• Construction of a demonstrator

Project Partner

Lis Laer Products
Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Infineon
Dr. Sennewald