Diagnosing Cancerous Tumor by Two Techniques: Photoacoustic Imaging and Thermoacoustic Tomography With Electric Excitation—A Numerical Approach For Comparison

A numerical study and simulation of cancerous tumor detection using the photoacoustic (PA) phenomenon and thermoacoustic (TA) with electric excitation is presented. This report was in small dimension of mimic breast tissue. Besides, the different layers of the breast were considered. Therefore, it was possible to rely on the values and characteristics of the resulting data in comparing two methods. A single suitable platform for simulating, which is commercially available Finite Element software (COMSOL®), has been selected. By using this platform, we were able to simulate these two methods from stimulation to propagation continuously. All required characteristics of breast and tumor were accurately calculated or obtained from a reliable source. We can study the resulting PA and TA wave and its changes in more detail by our defined scenarios.