Label-Free Identification of Early Stages of Breast Ductal Carcinoma via Multiphoton Microscopy

Breast cancer can be cured by early diagnosis. Appropriate and effective clinical treatment benefits from accurate pathological diagnosis. However, due to the lack of effective screening and diagnostic imaging methods, early stages of breast cancer often progress to malignant breast cancer. In this study, multiphoton microscopy (MPM) via two-photon excited fluorescence combined with second-harmonic generation was used for identifying the early stages of breast ductal carcinoma. The results showed differences in both cytological features and collagen distribution among normal breast tissue, atypical ductal hyperplasia, low-grade ductal carcinoma in situ, and high-grade ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion. Furthermore, three features extracted from the MPM images were used to describe differences in cytological features, collagen density, and basement membrane circumference in the early stages of breast ductal carcinoma. They revealed that MPM has the ability to identify early stages of breast ductal carcinoma label-free, which would contribute to the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. This study may provide the groundwork for the further application of MPM in the clinic.