Towards the Investigation of Breast Tumor Malignancy Via Electric Conductivity Measurement

Ulrich Katscher¹, Hiroyuki Abe², Marko K. Ivancevic³, Karim Djamshidi¹, Philipp Karkowski¹, Gillian M. Newstead²

According to ex vivo studies, breast tumors exhibit a significantly altered electric conductivity. This feature opens the chance to increase the specificity of breast tumor characterization with MRI. The electric conductivity can be measured in vivo using Electric Properties Tomography (EPT). Due to the complex frayed structure of fat and ductile tissue in the breast, an EPT reconstruction algorithm dedicated for breast tissue was developed, which is applied in this study to eight breast cancer patients. The study tries to contribute to the discussion if breast tumor conductivity can be measured reliably with EPT, aiming for future tumor malignancy staging.