Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death among women; to decrease the death rate for this disease, early detection plays a key role. Recently, microwave imaging systems have been proposed as an alternative to the current techniques, but they suffer from poor resolution due to the low frequencies involved. In this paper, for the first time, an innovative millimeter-wave imaging system for early-stage breast cancer detection is proposed and experimentally verified on different breast phantoms. This has the potential to achieve superior resolution for breasts with a high volumetric percentage of adipose tissue, and the merit to overcome the common misconception that millimeter-waves cannot achieve useful penetration depths for biological applications. Three phantoms were prepared according to the dielectric properties of human breast ex vivo tissues in the frequency range [0.5–50] GHz. Two cylindrical inclusions made by water and gelatin or agar, mimicking dielectric properties of neoplastic tissues, were embedded in the phantom at different depths up to 3 cm. Two double ridge waveguides, with mono-modal frequency band equal to [18–40] GHz, were used to synthetize a linear array of 24 elements in 28 positions, acquiring signals with a Vector Network Analyzer. The images were reconstructed by applying the Delay and Sum algorithm to calibrated data. The feasibility of a new imaging system with a central working frequency of about 30 GHz is experimentally demonstrated for the first time, and a target detection capability up to 3 cm within the phantom is shown. The presented results pave the way for a possible use of millimeter-waves to image non-superficial neoplasms in the breast.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, the second most common cancer overall, and the fifth most common cause of death for cancer in women [1].the current imaging techniques allow to detect cancer in early stage, increasing the survival chance for the patient
Microwave medical imaging systems are based on the detection of the dielectric contrast between healthy and neoplastic tissues, and several experimental campaigns demonstrated that this contrast exists up to 50 GHz, especially when the volume percentage of adipose tissue is comparatively high [5,6,7,8,9,10]
We have shown that penetration depths in the order of a few centimeters are experimentally possible in tissue-mimicking breast phantoms and that our proposed system is able to correctly identify the target position in all the presented scenario
Summary
The current imaging techniques allow to detect cancer in early stage, increasing the survival chance for the patient. Their disadvantages (e.g., exposition to ionizing radiation for x-ray mammography), are pushing for new complementary or supplementary techniques for breast cancer detection [2]. To this aim, the possibility of using microwaves has been largely investigated by several research groups worldwide, since microwave medical imaging systems represent a potential low-cost, low-risk, and easy-to-use alternative [3,4]. Microwave medical imaging systems are based on the detection of the dielectric contrast between healthy and neoplastic tissues, and several experimental campaigns demonstrated that this contrast exists up to 50 GHz, especially when the volume percentage of adipose tissue is comparatively high [5,6,7,8,9,10]
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