Research by Redona Brahimetaj and colleagues at ETRO-imec shows that the tissue surrounding breast microcalcifications can provide more diagnostic information than the calcium deposits themselves, opening new perspectives for breast cancer imaging.
Breast microcalcifications are tiny calcium deposits that can appear in breast tissue and are important indicators in breast cancer screening. Traditionally, imaging techniques have focused on the shape, size and distribution of these deposits to help distinguish benign from malignant lesions.
A new study led by Redona Brahimetaj at the Department of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO-imec) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel challenges this perspective. The research demonstrates that the tissue immediately surrounding individual microcalcifications contains valuable diagnostic information, potentially even more than the calcifications themselves.
Using high-resolution three-dimensional micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), the research team analysed 3,504 individual microcalcifications from 94 breast biopsy specimens, achieving a spatial resolution of approximately 8 micrometres.
By combining advanced medical image analysis, radiomics and machine-learning techniques, the researchers systematically investigated where the most useful diagnostic information originates: within the calcium deposits or in the surrounding breast tissue.
The results were striking. Including the surrounding tissue improved classification performance, with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) increasing from approximately 0.69 to 0.81.
Remarkably, analysing the surrounding tissue alone achieved comparable performance, demonstrating that the microenvironment around the calcifications is a particularly important source of diagnostic information.
This work highlights ETRO’s expertise in medical image processing, quantitative image analysis and artificial intelligence, and illustrates how advanced computational methods can reveal information that conventional imaging analysis may overlook.
By shifting attention from the calcifications themselves to the interface between calcium deposits and surrounding tissue, the research provides a new direction for developing quantitative imaging biomarkers.
Although the study used highly detailed images of biopsy specimens rather than conventional clinical breast images, its findings offer important insights that may guide future breast cancer imaging research. Further validation and investigation of the underlying tissue structures will be necessary before clinical applications can be considered.
The study was conducted through a collaboration between ETRO-imec, VUB’s Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, and the Departments of Pathology and Radiology at UZ Brussel.
The research brings together expertise in artificial intelligence, medical imaging, radiology and pathology, demonstrating the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing challenging medical diagnostic problems.
Micro-CT Radiomics Reveals the Microcalcification-Surrounding Tissue Interface as the Diagnostic Epicenter of Breast Microcalcifications
Authors: Redona Brahimetaj, Jan Cornelis, Guillaume Courtoy, Wim Waelput, Inneke Willekens, Johan De Mey, Ramses Forsyth and Bart Jansen.
https://www.vub.be/en/news/beyond-calcification-vub-imec-researchers-identify
