Biopotential signals of breast cancer versus tumor types and proliferation stages.

Clinical studies have shown compelling data of elevated biopotential signals recorded noninvasively from the breasts of women with breast cancer. While these data are compelling and show a strong potential for use in the noninvasive early detection of breast cancer, there remains significant knowledge gaps which must be addressed before this technology can be routinely used for breast cancer detection. A diffusion-drift model is developed to study the spatial and temporal characteristics of the biopotential signals of breast tumors taking into account the morphology and cell division stages. The electric signals of the most common tumor types-papillary, compact, and comedo-are also considered. The largest biopotential signal is observed from the compact tumor, while the smallest signal is observed from the papillary type. The results also show an increase in the time duration of the generated biopotential signals when cancer cells start their transitions at different time instants. The spatial and temporal variations of the biopotential signals are correlated with the tumor pattern which can have important implications for breast cancer detection.