title: Evaluation and comparison of the nonlinear elastic properties of the soft tissues of the breast.
abstract: As the number of breast cancer patients increases, there is an increasing need for accurate non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of breast cancer. It is possible that the nonlinear elastic properties of soft tissues of the breast can be used as a basis for diagnostic methods. Therefore, we have proposed a robotic palpation system for diagnosis based on the nonlinear elastic properties of tissue. Here, we measured the nonlinear elastic properties of soft tissues of the breast using creep tests and three parameters of the nonlinear elastic model were acquired. Two of these parameters are significantly different among soft tissues of the breast and that the magnitude of these parameters was determined by the tissue structure. These parameters could be used to differentiate between tissue types and aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Japan.
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsukune
authors.forename: Yo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Takeharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoshi
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyashita
authors.forename: Masakatsu G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Fujie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004548:Elasticity; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010173:Palpation; D012371:Robotics; D013552:Swine; D014783:Viscosity