Early breast cancer detection with ultrasound using NMF

Early breast cancer detection significantly influences patient outcomes. Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (DCE-US) has shown promise in early detection by visualizing tumor vascularity and perfusion dynamics in real-time. This study evaluates the efficacy of DCE-US in a transgenic mouse model that mimics human breast cancer progression using a VEGFR2-targeted microbubble contrast agent. By omitting traditional ultrasound burst pulses to remove unbound tracer-laded microbubbles and analyzing pre-pulse data with Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF), we successfully differentiated between tumor-specific and non-specific binding, thus enhancing cancer tissue identification. Our findings support the potential of NMF in DCE-US without any need for a pulse, with significant implications for clinical application.