Biophotonics for assessing breast cancer

Biophotonic imaging is rapidly emerging as a tool for clinical assessment of breast cancer at the microscopic and macroscopic scale. Optical biopsy uses near-infrared (NIR) light to analyze tumor margins and lymph nodes with micron-scale resolution intraoperatively. Optical mammography uses NIR light to gain spectroscopic information and three-dimensional images of whole breast tissues noninvasively. The following chapter will review the current research in the application of biophotonic imaging methods such as optical coherence tomography, multiphoton microscopy, vibrational imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy, diffuse optical tomography, and multimodal macroscale imaging for noninvasive diagnosis and intraoperative imaging of breast tumors and lymph nodes.