The University of Chicago received a $673,366 Project Grant from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research program (CFDA 93.394) to develop a novel x-ray dual-energy cone-beam microCT (DECB microCT) imaging system for intraoperative analysis of lumpectomy specimens. The goal is to enhance the contrast between breast cancer and fibroglandular tissues, improving the identification of positive margins during breast-conserving surgery and reducing the need for repeat surgeries.
The specific aims of the 5-year project include: 1) Developing the DECB microCT system for quantitative lumpectomy specimen imaging; 2) Acquiring highly-sampled DECB microCT data of invasive ductal/lobular carcinoma specimens and optimizing the scanning workflow; and 3) Evaluating the DECB microCT performance and compiling a comprehensive tumor database. The project builds on the university's prior work with single-energy cone-beam microCT and aims to establish the feasibility of DECB microCT for improving intraoperative identification of positive margins with high accuracy. The comprehensive tumor database created will also support the development of advanced machine learning and deep learning methods for automated margin analysis.
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