Virtual Clinical Trials of Breast Tomosynthesis

Validation of novel x-ray breast image acquisition or analysis systems, based upon the clinical trials, is limited in terms of their cost, duration, and repeated exposure. These limitations have been emphasized by the emergence of digital breast tomosynthesis and breast computed tomography due to their large number of system settings to be tested. Virtual clinical trials have been introduced as alternative preclinical validation, through the modeling of breast anatomy, image acquisition and analysis. This presentation illustrates the development of an automated simulation platform for virtual clinical trials of breast tomosynthesis cancer screening. The advantages and limitations of the current approach are discussed, as well as its extension to other virtual trials, including the validation of methods for dose reduction in clinical imaging exams.