Breast & Prostate cancer in today’s world

Breast & Prostate cancers have always been in the news due to their widespread occurrence, nature, complexity and aggressiveness. They are the two most commonly found invasive cancers in women and men, respectively. 

In the last couple of decades, the detection, localization and diagnosis of these cancers has seen tremendous advances thanks to technology and innovation in the field of Medical imaging, recently focusing on non-invasive optical techniques. Imaging is an important part of cancer clinical protocols and can provide a variety of information about morphology, structure, metabolism and bodily functions. 

Biomedical imaging can thus be used in the prediction, staging, screening, prognosis, biopsy guidance for diagnosis, plan of treatment, therapy guidance, therapy response recurrence and palliation of these cancers. With increasing cancer risk globally, there is a higher need for screening and diagnosis as early as possible. 

Speaking of the Breast & Prostate imaging market as an entity, the most commonly used imaging modalities are Mammography, MRI, Ultrasound and Optical Imaging. This report thus provides a comprehensive view on these imaging modalities, their techniques, functionalities, current markets and forecast (2020-2026), R&D and Patents’ landscape and upcoming devices in the market. The Ultrasound market, currently the largest market covering Breast & Prostate cancer imaging, was valued at 7.25 B$ in 2020 with an expected CAGR of 6.6% in 2026.

Market segments for Breast & Prostate Cancers

Imaging Breast & Prostate cancer is a very complicated and heterogenous process, that involves several imaging steps and techniques including conventional and functional methods used in different clinical scenarios with their very own advantages and limitations. Based on the progression and stage of the disease, different medical imaging technologies are used for: Screening, Diagnosis/Localization, Pre-surgery, Intraoperative/Surgery and  Post- Surgery. 

Thus the Breast and Prostate cancer markets are split into these conventional imaging methods, each having its own requirements (performance, costs, design, operating conditions, etc.). But these methods, do not come without any disadvantages, and are being fast replaced by non-invasive, label-free optical imaging techniques like Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI), Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI), and so on, which forms the 4th and most important segment of this market. 

Screening, Diagnosis, Localization and Post-operative imaging: This report mainly focuses on all the used in vivo imaging techniques and variations stemming from these 4 market segments.  Intra-operative imaging: the current gold standards are still ex vivo techniques like frozen section analysis, imprint cytology etc. are only mentioned and is not in the scope of this report.

The key players of conventional imaging systems are usually the well known giants like GE Healthcare, Phillips, Siemens, etc. But a lot of new products and systems are emerging from optical imaging based companies, that will be key in expanding the Breast & Prostate Cancer Imaging market. Considering the large number of regulatory approval awaiting products, a market disruption can be expected at the horizon of 2023-2024, beating the negative effects of Covid-19.

Breast & Prostate cancer Research and Raising Awareness

Even with decades of technological advances, the doctor’s cannot seem to have enough information about the structure and localisation of tumours in these soft tissues, and this has pushed the need for R&D and clinical trials. Currently, for Breast cancer, the main focus is on MRI, PET/CT scans, closely followed by optical methods like PAI in fusion with MRI or Ultrasound. Prostate cancer research is centralized on MRI and Ultrasound fusion techniques.   

The EU commission and US governmental organizations have contributed to a combined  sum of ~$ 35M  for R&D projects. Countries all over the world also have programs set up for Breast & Prostate cancer awareness, screening, diagnosis and treatment. In the months of October and November, various cancer societies and international organisations work towards awareness & fundraising for Breast and Prostate cancer respectively. 

Will Optical Imaging soon replace other imaging regulars? 

Optical imaging is an emerging technology, with great potential for improving disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in the medical office or in the operating room. Optical imaging offers the potential to differentiate among soft tissues, and between the affected tissues. This ability of optical imaging to differentiate among the healthy and cancerous tissues is creating a huge opportunity, in the medical diagnosis industry as a strong competitor to other conventional techniques.

Furthermore, optical imaging uses non-ionizing radiation, which significantly reduces patient radiation exposure, compared to other harmful effects of radiation-based imaging like Mammography or MRI. This feature allows the patient to undergo repeated studies over time. These advantages have also led to an exponential market growth in the last decade, with a lot of investments for R&D and technological advancements. 

The global optical imaging market can be broken down in to 3 major segments : Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Photoacoustic Imaging (PAI) and Others (Hyperspectral Imaging, NIR-Spectroscopy, …).

This segment has been the go-to technique in the intra-operative imaging landscape for ophthalmology, cardiology, Breast and Prostate cancers. It is also  a market with the most advanced proof-of-concept systems and clinical products related to breast cancer detection.  

Although, the majority of the market for cancer is still dedicated to small animal imaging (especially PAI and OCT) and other R & D applications, the advances in medical diagnosis have been tremendous.

Looking at the pipeline of regulatory approved & awaiting products and those in clinical trial, the next few years should see a sharp rise in market growth slowly beating the likes of Mammography, MRI, PET/SPECT etc.

ICL and QCL sources manufacturers mentioned in the report:

AB-CT, Adani, AGFA Healthcare, Bio Medical International, Canon, CMR Naviscan, DMS Imaging, Ecoray, Esaote, EXO, GE Healthcare, Genoray, Hologic, IMS Giotto, Italray, Konica Minolta, Koning, Landwind Medical, Leica Biosystems, Lorad, Metaltronica S.P.A., Mindray, MS Westfalia, Panacea Engineering Medicine, OncoVision, Philips, Planmed, Seno Medical, Siemens Healthineers, SIUI, Shimadzu, Sternmed, Toshiba,  Villa Sistemi Medicali S.P.A.

Providers of ICL and QCL-based equipment mentioned in the report:

BK Medical, Canon, Echoson, EDAP TMS, Esaote, EXO, Fujifilm – Visualsonics, GE Healthcare, Hitachi, Karl Storz, Koelis, Konica Minolta, Landwind Medical, Mindray, Philips, Promaxo, Siemens Healthineers, SIUI, Sonacare Medical, Sternmed,  Zeiss

Table of contents

Executive Summary

• Study Goals and Objectives
• Information sources and methodology
• Scope of the report
• Glossary
• Definitions
• List of companies mentioned in the repor

• Prevalence
• Scanning & Surgeries

• Existing Technologies
• Imaging Techniques for Breast & Prostate Cancer
• Breast Imaging 
• Prostate Imaging 
• Medical Expectations

• Market Segmentation 
• Overview of Key Imaging Systems’ manufacturers
• Market and Forecast 
• Finance & Takeovers

• Major centres/organisations for clinical trials
• Funding/Projects
• Patents’ Landscape
• Major Trends

6. Regulatory aspects

7. Conclusions

8. About TEMATYS