Abstract
Purpose
To explore the potential of X-ray imaging for early-stage lung cancer screening and to help finding an optimal lung cancer screening method.
Methods
Experimentally and simulatively comparing performances of different X-ray techniques (absorption-contrast imaging and phase-contrast imaging) for model lung cancer samples.
Results
Absorption imaging shows performance equal to or better than that of low-radiation dose.
Conclusion
Absorption imaging is still the most promising imaging method for early lung cancer detection.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
F. Bray, J. Ferlay, I. Soerjomataram, R.L. Siegel, L.A. Torre, A. Jemal, Global cancer statistics 2018: Globocan estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J. Clin. 68(6), 394–424 (2018)
D.E. Wood, G.A. Eapen, D.S. Ettinger, L. Hou, D. Jackman, E. Kazerooni, D. Klippenstein, R.P. Lackner, L. Leard, A.N.C. Leung et al., Lung cancer screening. J. Natl. Compr. Cancer Netw. 10(2), 240–265 (2012)
S.M.P.H. Rebecca, M.P. Siegel, D. Kimberly, M.P.H. Miller, D.V.M. Ahmedin Jemal, Cancer statistics. CA Cancer J. Clin. 67(27), 7–30 (2017)
D. Sadighbayan, K. Sadighbayan, A.Y. Khosroushahi, M. Hasanzadeh, Recent advances on the DNA-based electrochemical biosensing of cancer biomarkers: analytical approach. TrAC Trends Anal. Chem. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2019.07.020
D.R. Aberle, A.M. Adams, C.D. Berg, W.C. Black, J.D. Clapp, R.M. Fagerstrom, I.F. Gareen, C. Gatsonis, P.M. Marcus, J.D. Sicks, Reduced lung-cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening. N. Engl. J. Med. 365(5), 395–409 (2011)
U.M.H.A.R.T. Bonse, M. Hart, An X-ray interferometer. Appl. Phys. Lett. 6(8), 155–156 (1965)
A. Momose, T. Takeda, Y. Itai, K. Hirano, Phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography for observing biological soft tissues. Nat. Med. 2(4), 473–475 (1996)
V.N. Ingal, E.A. Beliaevskaya, X-ray plane-wave topography observation of the phase contrast from a non-crystalline object. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 28(11), 2314 (1995)
T.J. Davis, D. Gao, T.E. Gureyev, A.W. Stevenson, S.W. Wilkins, Phase-contrast imaging of weakly absorbing materials using hard X-rays. Nature 373(6515), 595–598 (1995)
D. Chapman, W. Thomlinson, R.E. Johnston, D. Washburn, E. Pisano, N. Gmür, Z. Zhong, R. Menk, F. Arfelli, D. Sayers, Diffraction enhanced X-ray imaging. Phys. Med. Biol. 42(11), 2015 (1997)
C. David, B. Nöhammer, H.H. Solak, E. Ziegler, Differential X-ray phase contrast imaging using a shearing interferometer. Appl. Phys. Lett. 81(17), 3287–3289 (2002)
T. Weitkamp, A. Diaz, C. David, F. Pfeiffer, M. Stampanoni, P. Cloetens, E. Ziegler, X-ray phase imaging with a grating interferometer. Opt. Express 13(16), 6296–6304 (2005)
F. Pfeiffer, T. Weitkamp, O. Bunk, C. David, Phase retrieval and differential phase-contrast imaging with low-brilliance X-ray sources. Nat. Phys. 2(4), 258 (2006)
A. Olivo, F. Arfelli, G. Cantatore, R. Longo, R.H. Menk, S. Pani, M. Prest, P. Poropat, L. Rigon, G. Tromba et al., An innovative digital imaging set-up allowing a low-dose approach to phase contrast applications in the medical field. Med. Phys. 28(8), 1610–1619 (2001)
A. Olivo, R. Speller, A coded-aperture technique allowing X-ray phase contrast imaging with conventional sources. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91(7), 074106 (2007)
A. Snigirev, I. Snigireva, V. Kohn, S. Kuznetsov, I. Schelokov, On the possibilities of X-ray phase contrast microimaging by coherent high-energy synchrotron radiation. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66(12), 5486–5492 (1995)
S.W. Wilkins, T.E. Gureyev, D. Gao, A. Pogany, A.W. Stevenson, Phase-contrast imaging using polychromatic hard X-rays. Nature 384(6607), 335 (1996)
G.K. Aulakh, A. Mann, G. Belev, S. Wiebe, W.M. Kuebler, B. Singh, D. Chapman, Multiple image X-radiography for functional lung imaging. Phys. Med. Biol. 63(1), 015009 (2017)
L. Dong, J. Li, L. Wushuai Jian, M.W. Zhang, H. Shi, S. Luo, Emphysema early diagnosis using X-ray diffraction enhanced imaging at synchrotron light source. Biomed. Eng. Online 13(1), 82 (2014)
D.M. Connor, Z. Zhong, H.D. Foda, S. Wiebe, C.A. Parham, F.A. Dilmanian, E.B. Cole, E.D. Pisano, Diffraction enhanced imaging of a rat model of gastric acid aspiration pneumonitis. Acad. Radiol. 18(12), 1515–1521 (2011)
M.J. Kitchen, D.M. Paganin, K. Uesugi, B.J. Allison, R.A. Lewis, S.B. Hooper, K.M. Pavlov, Phase contrast image segmentation using a Laue analyser crystal. Phys. Med. Biol. 56(3), 515 (2011)
M.J. Kitchen, R.A. Lewis, N. Yagi, K. Uesugi, D. Paganin, S.B. Hooper, G. Adams, S. Jureczek, J. Singh, C.R. Christensen et al., Phase contrast X-ray imaging of mice and rabbit lungs: a comparative study. Br. J. Radiol. 78, 1018–1027 (2005)
M. Bech, A. Tapfer, A. Velroyen, A. Yaroshenko, B. Pauwels, J. Hostens, P. Bruyndonckx, A. Sasov, F. Pfeiffer, In-vivo dark-field and phase-contrast X-ray imaging. Sci. Rep. 3, 3209 (2013)
F. Schwab, S. Schleede, D. Hahn, M. Bech, J. Herzen, S. Auweter, F. Bamberg, K. Achterhold, A.O. Yildirim, A. Bohla et al., Comparison of contrast-to-noise ratios of transmission and dark-field signal in grating-based X-ray imaging for healthy murine lung tissue. Z. Med. Phys. 23(3), 236–242 (2013)
F.G. Meinel, F. Schwab, S. Schleede, M. Bech, J. Herzen, K. Achterhold, S. Auweter, F. Bamberg, A.Ö. Yildirim, A. Bohla et al., Diagnosing and mapping pulmonary emphysema on X-ray projection images: incremental value of grating-based X-ray dark-field imaging. PloS One 8(3), e59526 (2013)
F.G. Meinel, F. Schwab, A. Yaroshenko, A. Velroyen, M. Bech, K. Hellbach, J. Fuchs, T. Stiewe, A.Ö. Yildirim, F. Bamberg et al., Lung tumors on multimodal radiographs derived from grating-based X-ray imaging—a feasibility study. Phys. Med. 30(3), 352–357 (2014)
A. Yaroshenko, F.G. Meinel, K. Hellbach, M. Bech, A. Velroyen, M. Müller, F. Bamberg, K. Nikolaou, M.F. Reiser, A. Yildirim et al., Small-animal dark-field radiography for pulmonary emphysema evaluation, in Medical Imaging 2014: Physics of Medical Imaging, vol. 9033 (International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2014), p. 90331M
H. Einarsdottir, A. Yaroshenko, A. Velroyen, M. Bech, K. Hellbach, S. Auweter, Ö. Yildirim, F.G. Meinel, O. Eickelberg, M. Reiser et al., Computer-aided diagnosis of pulmonary diseases using X-ray darkfield radiography. Phys. Med. Biol. 60(24), 9253 (2015)
T. Koenig, M. Zuber, B. Trimborn, T. Farago, P. Meyer, D. Kunka, F. Albrecht, S. Kreuer, T. Volk, M. Fiederle et al., On the origin and nature of the grating interferometric dark-field contrast obtained with low-brilliance X-ray sources. Phys. Med. Biol. 61(9), 3427 (2016)
K. Scherer, A. Yaroshenko, D.A. Bölükbas, L.B. Gromann, K. Hellbach, F.G. Meinel, M. Braunagel, J. Von Berg, O. Eickelberg, M.F. Reiser et al., X-ray dark-field radiography-in-vivo diagnosis of lung cancer in mice. Sci. Rep. 7(1), 402 (2017)
L.B. Gromann, F. De Marco, K. Willer, P.B. Noël, K. Scherer, B. Renger, B. Gleich, K. Achterhold, A.A. Fingerle, D. Muenzel et al., In-vivo X-ray dark-field chest radiography of a pig. Sci. Rep. 7(1), 4807 (2017)
P. Modregger, T.P. Cremona, C. Benarafa, J.C. Schittny, A. Olivo, M. Endrizzi, Small angle X-ray scattering with edge-illumination. Sci. Rep. 6, 30940 (2016)
Y. Suzuki, N. Yagi, K. Uesugi, X-ray refraction-enhanced imaging and a method for phase retrieval for a simple object. J. Synchrotron Radiat. 9(3), 160–165 (2002)
M.J. Kitchen, D. Paganin, R.A. Lewis, N. Yagi, K. Uesugi, S.T. Mudie, On the origin of speckle in X-ray phase contrast images of lung tissue. Phys. Med. Biol. 49(18), 4335 (2004)
S.B. Hooper, M.J. Kitchen, M.J. Wallace, N. Yagi, K. Uesugi, M.J. Morgan, C. Hall, K.K.W. Siu, I.M. Williams, M. Siew et al., Imaging lung aeration and lung liquid clearance at birth. FASEB J. 21(12), 3329–3337 (2007)
M.A. Beltran, D.M. Paganin, K.K.W. Siu, A. Fouras, S.B. Hooper, D.H. Reser, M.J. Kitchen, Interface-specific X-ray phase retrieval tomography of complex biological organs. Phys. Med. Biol. 56(23), 7353 (2011)
J. Zhang, Y. Chen, G. Li, X. Jiang, Imaging characters of the lung cancer phantoms under the simulative clinical condition performed with hard X-ray in-line holography. J. Instrum. 8(07), C07002 (2013)
M.J. Kitchen, G.A. Buckley, A.F.T. Leong, R.P. Carnibella, A. Fouras, M.J. Wallace, S.B. Hooper, X-ray specks: low dose in vivo imaging of lung structure and function. Phys. Med. Biol. 60(18), 7259 (2015)
N. Yagi, Y. Suzuki, K. Umetani, Y. Kohmura, K. Yamasaki, Refraction-enhanced X-ray imaging of mouse lung using synchrotron radiation source. Med. Phys. 26(10), 2190–2193 (1999)
A.N. Khromova, F. Arfelli, H.J. Besch, H. Plothow-Besch, R.H. Menk, L. Rigon, Monte Carlo simulation of X-ray multiple refractive scattering from fine structure objects imaged with the DEI technique, in Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2004, IEEE, vol. 6 (IEEE, 2004), pp. 4014–4018
Y.I. Nesterets, P. Coan, T.E. Gureyev, A. Bravin, P. Cloetens, S.W. Wilkins, On qualitative and quantitative analysis in analyser-based imaging. Acta Crystallogr. Sect. A Found. Crystallogr. 62(4), 296–308 (2006)
P.C. Diemoz, P. Coan, C. Glaser, A. Bravin, Absorption, refraction and scattering in analyzer-based imaging: comparison of different algorithms. Opt. Express 18(4), 3494–3509 (2010)
M.N. Wernick, Y. Yang, I. Mondal, D. Chapman, M. Hasnah, C. Parham, E. Pisano, Z. Zhong, Computation of mass-density images from X-ray refraction-angle images. Phys. Med. Biol. 51(7), 1769 (2006)
Acknowledgements
We sincerely appreciated the kind assistance of the staff of the 4W1A beamline of the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the BL13W1 beamline of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Our researches are funded by NSFC 11305200, NSFC U1732108, NSFC 11675208 and NSFC 11627901.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, K., Chen, Y., Sun, R. et al. Exploring potential of different X-ray imaging methods for early-stage lung cancer detection. Radiat Detect Technol Methods 4, 213–221 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41605-020-00173-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41605-020-00173-1