Bioimpedance spectroscopy can precisely discriminate human breast carcinoma from benign tumors

Abstract

Intraoperative frozen pathology is critical when a breast tumor is not diagnosed before surgery. However, frozen tumor tissues always present various microscopic morphologies, leading to a high misdiagnose rate from frozen section examination. Thus, we aimed to identify breast tumors using bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS), a technology that measures the tissues’ impedance. We collected and measured 976 specimens from breast patients during surgery, including 581 breast cancers, 190 benign tumors, and 205 normal mammary gland tissues. After measurement, Cole-Cole curves were generated by a bioimpedance analyzer and parameters R0/R∞, fc, and α were calculated from the curve. The Cole-Cole curves showed a trend to differentiate mammary gland, benign tumors, and cancer. However, there were some curves overlapped with other groups, showing that it is not an ideal model. Subsequent univariate analysis of R0/R∞, fc, and α showed significant differences between benign tumor and cancer. However, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated the diagnostic value of fc and R0/R∞ were not superior to frozen sections (area under curve [AUC] = 0.836 and 0.849, respectively), and α was useless in diagnosis (AUC = 0.596). After further research, we found a scatter diagram that showed a synergistic effect of the R0/R∞ and fc, in discriminating cancer from benign tumors. Thus, we used multivariate analysis, which revealed that these two parameters were independent predictors, to combine them. A simplified equation, RF′ = 0.2fc + 3.6R0/R∞, based on multivariate analysis was developed. The ROC curve for RF′ showed an AUC = 0.939, and the sensitivity and specificity were 82.62% and 95.79%, respectively. To match a clinical setting, the diagnostic criteria were set at 6.91 and 12.9 for negative and positive diagnosis, respectively. In conclusion, RF′ derived from BIS can discriminate benign tumor and cancers, and integrated criteria were developed for diagnosis.

Technical Note: A new method to rapidly identify benign and malignant breast lumps through bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy

“…BIS analyzer Mscan1.0B (Sealand Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan, China) was used in this study, which generated BIS data of breast specimens by sweep frequency measurement ranging from 3 kHz to 1 MHz. Because China did not have a national standard of medical impedance analysis system, this study used the standard of the Medical Equipment Monitoring Center of Sichuan Province.…”

Correlation between electrical characteristics and biomarkers in breast cancer cells

“…With the discovery of marked differences between the electrical impedances of malignant breast tissues and healthy tissues 1 , 2 , bioelectrical impedance technology has emerged as a new approach for breast cancer detection. This technology is noninvasive, cost-effective, safe, informative, and easily acceptable to both doctors and patients 3 .…”

Bioelectrical impedance phase angle as a diagnostic indicator in thyroid cancer

“…Because the current has to pass around the cells with path of least resistance, the resistance to flow depends on the cell spacing and how they are arranged, whereas with increasing frequencies current can penetrate the membrane and hence passes through both intracellular and extracellular spaces 9 . Cellular changes alter the flow of electrical current through living tissue, and a number of literatures indicated differences in human electrical impedance between benign and malignant tumors [breast 13,14 , thyroid [15][16][17] , prostate 18 , bladder 19 , colon 20 ]. Previous studies have confirmed the feasibility of EIS in diagnosis of thyroid cancer.…”