Method for quantitative broadband diffuse optical spectroscopy of tumor-like inclusions

A hybrid reflectance-based diffuse optical imaging (DOI) technique combining discrete wavelength frequency-domain (FD) near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with broadband continuous wave NIRS measurements was developed to quantify the broadband optical properties of deep tumor-like inclusions. This method was developed to more accurately measure the broadband optical properties of human tumors using a compact handheld imaging probe and without requiring a priori spectral constraints. We simulated the reconstruction of absorption and scattering spectra (650-1000 nm) of human breast tumors in a homogeneous background at depths of 0 to 10 mm. The hybrid DOI technique demonstrated enhanced performance in reconstruction of optical absorption with a mean accuracy over all 71 wavelengths of 8.39% versus 32.26% for a 10 mm deep tumor with the topographic DOI method. The new hybrid technique was also tested and validated on two heterogeneous tissue-simulating phantoms with inclusion depths of 2, 7, and 9 mm. The mean optical absorption accuracy over all wavelengths was similarly improved up to 5x for the hybrid DOI method versus topographic DOI for the deepest inclusions.