ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is the most widespread cancer in women. Early detection of this disease has been identified as a major effective factor to save the lives of many women. The ability of small angle X-ray scattering to provide molecular in formations on live tissue has led to investigate the possibility of exploiting coherent scattered X-rays as a diagnostic tool in breast cancer. In this study an angular dispersive set up was used in Daresbury laboratory [UK]. 84 human breast tissue biopsies including 50 cancerous and 34 normal tissues were studied. For this study a beam size of 0.5 mm2 at the sample and a wavelength of 1.54 ? were used. The other included conditions were, the sample to detector distance [SSD], 2000 m and exposure time of 200 sec. Data were recorded using the Daresbury 2-D multiwire proportional counter operated at 512 512 pixels. The region between the specimen and detector was evacuated to minimize air scatter. With exposure to the each sample, at first a two dimensional image was produced and then the corrected intensity versus momentum transfer [Q] was plotted by using PCDetpack software. It was found that there was a noticeable coherent intensity difference between tumor and normal breast tissues especially in the range of Q from 0.4-0.7 nm-1, that the coherent X-ray scattering intensity in the tumor breast tissue was significantly higher [P < 0.0001, CI= 95%] than in the normal breast tissue in the 0.4-0.7 nm -1 range. In this study, by using 2 m distance of camera collagen diffraction peaks were seen at 0.3 and 0.45 nm-1. Applying SAXS, it is possible to differentiate normal and tumoral breast tissues as separated groups [P < 0.0001, CI = 95%], on the base of integrated intensity, in the 0.4-0.7 nm -1 range. Since having collagen damge in tumors, is probable therefore, it is suggested to do some cytocellular examinations on tumoral tissues