non invasive xrf analysis of human hair for health state determination of breast tissue

Background: using hair samples to analyze the trace element concentrations is of interest among many researchers. x-ray fluorescence (xrf) and x-ray diffraction (xrd) are the most common methods in studying the structure and concentration of elements of tissues and also crystalline materials, using low energy x-ray. objectives: in the present study, the detection ability of wave length x-ray fluorescence (wlxrf) of breast cancer at early stages was evaluated and the results were compared with other routine modalities such as mammography. materials and methods: hair samples of 54 women (including 27 healthy and 27 patients) with average age of 52.03 ± 11.44 years were analyzed. all the sample donors were iranian women. for the measurements wave length x-ray fluorescence (wlxrf) method was used. results: trace elements in healthy individuals were higher than those in cancer patients. in addition, sensitivity of the used method (wlxrf) was 96% compared to mammography (77%) as a gold standard for breast cancer detection. conclusions: trace elements in healthy individuals were higher than cancer patients and it seems that wlxrf may be used as a safe, low cost and reliable method with sensitivity higher than those of the other two relevant methods, xrd and mammography.