title: Accurate characterization of benign and cancerous breast tissues: aspecific patient studies using piezoresistive microcantilevers.
abstract: Breast cancer is the largest detected cancer amongst women in the US. In this work, our team reports on the development of piezoresistive microcantilevers (PMCs) to investigate their potential use in the accurate detection and characterization of benign and diseased breast tissues by performing indentations on the micro-scale tissue specimens. The PMCs used in these experiments have been fabricated using laboratory-made silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, which significantly reduces the fabrication costs. The PMCs are 260 μm long, 35 μm wide and 2 μm thick with resistivity of order 1.316×10(-3) Ω cm obtained by using boron diffusion technique. For indenting the tissue, we utilized 8 μm thick cylindrical SU-8 tip. The PMC was calibrated against a known AFM probe. Breast tissue cores from seven different specimens were indented using PMC to identify benign and cancerous tissue cores. Furthermore, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) of benign and cancerous specimens showed marked differences in the tissue morphology, which further validates our observed experimental data with the PMCs. While these patient aspecific feasibility studies clearly demonstrate the ability to discriminate between benign and cancerous breast tissues, further investigation is necessary to perform automated mechano-phenotyping (classification) of breast cancer: from onset to disease progression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Electronic address: hjpandya@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Hardik J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Pandya
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Rajarshi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Imaging & Informatics, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
authors.forename: Wenjin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA.
authors.forename: Marina A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Chekmareva
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Imaging & Informatics, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Foran
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Jaydev P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Desai
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055617:Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems / Q000379:methods*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon
keywords: Breast cancer; MEMS sensor; Piezoresistive microcantilever; Tissue microarray