Monte Carlo simulation of handheld probes to detect non-invasive ductal carcinoma from diffuse optical reflectance signals

To identify the malignancy in human breast, hand-held optical probes are simulated using the Monte Carlo method. These devices were used to scan different tissue equivalent numerical breast phantoms to detect the embedded cancerous tissues in them. The phantoms were simulated with glandular tissues embedded with ductal carcinoma of size 5 mm and 2 mm diameter at various depths. Two optical probes namely dual side detector (DSD) probe and a single side detector (SSD) probe are designed through which one million light photons of wavelengths 600 nm and 800 nm respectively were passed into the numerical phantoms. The photons that were backscattered from the phantoms were received by the detectors in both probes. They were measured as signals and both probes were able to detect the presence of the embedded cancerous tissues at different depths. The results indicate that the probes with a light source at 800 nm could detect deep-seated inhomogeneities. The absolute value of Peak Intensity (|PI|) and Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) would be indicative of their location and approximate size of the embedded tissues. The |PI| decreases with the size and depth of the embedded tissue, and the FWHM increases with depth. The results show that the designed probes are capable of detecting small variations in tissues.