System and a method to distinguish between benign and malignant breast tumors

Abstract

An ex vivo method and system of identifying a state of a tumor margin in a sample. An ultrasound image and a photoacoustic image are generated, where the system includes a probe configured to deliver a pulsed laser from a laser source to a sample, where the laser source is operable to generate the pulsed laser. Furthermore, there are arrays coupled to the probe, where one of the arrays includes transducing elements arranged thereon which are operable to transmit and collect ultrasound signals, and where one of the arrays includes transducing elements arranged thereon which are operable to collect photoacoustic signals. Additionally, the system includes a data acquisition module which converts the ultrasound signals and the photoacoustic signals into the ultrasound image and the photoacoustic image, respectively.