Spontaneous photon emission: A promising non-invasive diagnostic tool for breast cancer

Ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) has attracted significant scientific attention for its potential to monitor the physiological and pathological characteristics of living systems. In this study, we investigated the strength of spontaneous photon emission (SPE) from the right (R) and left (L) side of body surface of human breast cancer-bearing nude mice models, considering the entire breast cancer growth process, and healthy controls using a photon detector. And then we calculated the ratio of the average SPE strength (ratio (R/L)) between the right and left side of each mouse. Cluster analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy rates of strength-R, strength-L, ratio (R/L) and their combination to identify tumor mice from the controls. Our results revealed that the discriminating powers of different parameters were different in different growth stages of tumor: in tumor incubation period, the accuracy rates of strength-R, strength-L, ratio (R/L) and their combination to identify tumor mice from control mice were 63.6%, 40.9%, 81.8% and 86.4%, respectively; For nude mice with tumor diameter