Small Angle X-Ray Scattering Signatures for Breast Cancer Detection: Direct Comparison of Synchrotron and Laboratory X-Ray Sources

Scattering signatures from human breast tissue acquired on a synchrotron x-ray source and a laboratory instrument have been directly compared. We have previously established that the amorphous scatter intensity is extremely sensitive to disease status, able to detect the molecular changes in healthy tissue from patients with verified disease before the conventional histological markers of cancer are visible. SAXS images of tissue samples from 130 patients were imaged on a synchrotron source, and matched samples from 66 of these patients were also imaged on a laboratory source. The results indicate that not only does the integrated amorphous scattering intensity increase with disease severity for both sources, but that the size of the predominant scatterers also appears to decrease with disease progression.