Near-infrared optical imaging of the breast

Optical Imaging is a safe, painless technique that may become a valuable clinical tool for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer An approach to optical mammography based on intensity-modulated illumination and phase-sensitive detection (frequency-domain optical mammography) as well as time domain optical Tomography is presented here. It shows how the diagnostic value of single-wavelength images (which display the blood distribution and blood-vessel architecture within the breast) can be enhanced by multi-wavelength information associated with the local oxygenation level of the blood.