Efficacy of Photoacoustic Imaging for Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer

Purpose:
Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of women’s cancers diagnosed in the late stages, and therefore, it has a high mortality rate. There are several imaging methods for the diagnosis of ovarian tumors such as transvaginal ultrasound (TVU), positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a hybrid noninvasive imaging modality in which photoacoustic waves are produced as a result of thermoelastic expansion and contraction of irradiated tissue with laser light. Successful applications of PAI in the diagnosis of ovarian tumors have been reported. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of PAI in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Methods:
The articles used for this study were published from 2016 to 2022, and were obtained by searching the keywords of “photoacousticimaging”, “hybrid imaging” , “ovarian cancer”, and “diagnosis” in the databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect.
Results:
Photoacoustic imaging can be used as a complementary method along with other imaging modalities such as TVU for better management of ovarian cancer in the early stages.Photoacousticimagingisasafediagnostic method without using ionizing radiation that provides real-time detection of the tissue’s functional and molecular information. It has a high sensitivity to detect cancer metastases and a good penetration depth.
Conclusion:
Photoacoustic imaging is a complementary diagnostic method for early, efficient and safe diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Keywords: Photoacoustic imaging, Hybrid imaging, ovarian cancer, Diagnosis