Comparison of Finite Element and Monte Carlo Simulations for Inhomogeneous Advanced Breast Cancer Imaging

Tumor vascular patterns of advanced breast cancers are complex and heterogeneous. Near infrared (NIR) optical tomography has great potential to image tumor vascular and hypoxia patterns. The simulation of NIR diffusion in turbid tissue is indispensable to accelerate the practice in clinic. In this article, the two popular simulation methods, Finite element (FEM) and Monte Carlo (MC), are compared towards running time, reconstruction results and accuracy ratio. Three-dimensional FEM method provided by Comsol is used to model an inhomogeneous advanced breast tumor of different optical properties for outer layer and inner core in a semi-infinite medium. The MC simulation developed by standard C modeled the same condition using 30 million photons. The phantom experiment in similar condition using ultrasound-guided NIR imaging system is also performed to verify the simulations.