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Implementation of Active Microwave Imaging Methods to Improve Early Signs of Breast Cancer Detection – Methods

Abstract:: Active microwave imaging approaches typically pose an inverse scattering problem, where multiple microwave transmitters illuminate an object and scattered fields in numerous locations are measured. The shape of the object and spatial distribution of the complex permittivity are obtained from the transmitted (incident) and scattered (received) fields. The solutions to most inverse scattering problems are difficult because of the relationship between object dimensions, discontinuity, separation, and contrast in properties of inhomogeneities compared to the wavelength, the wave undergoes multiple scattering within the object that is to be reconstructed. This makes the relationship between the measured scattered fields and object function nonlinear. Altogether, the inverse scattering approaches generally suffer from non uniqueness and multiple wrappings of the scattered field phases; however, with smaller geometries, such as the breasts, these concerns are minimal.

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Implementation of Active Microwave Imaging Methods to Improve Early Signs of Breast Cancer Detection – Results

Abstract:: Current ongoing measurements of electrical properties of normal breast tissue and typical abnormalities will provide a solid foundation for future designs of microwave systems based on emerging technologies. There are still gigantic amounts of research and development that can be done to reach higher expectations of performance. Some examples include better antenna designs, better coupling systems and mediums, better data acquisition systems, hardware design, signal processing methods, and other improvements. Also, with the hopes of progress in numerical methods and increase computational power with decreased computational cost, these methods can only improve.

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Abstract:: Proposed is a model that answers the question of how an active microwave imaging method can be used as an imaging modality to detect early signs of cancerous tumors in the breasts. The physical basis for microwave imaging lies in the significant contrast in the dielectric properties between the normal breast tissue and the malignant tissue at microwave frequencies [1]-[5]. The main active microwave imaging method used will be Confocal Microwave Imaging (CMI). CMI has been described in several researches to suggest improvements on early signs of breast cancer detection on subjects by examining the dielectric responses and properties of breast tissues and the construction of images from the information gathered. Presentation of this model will hopefully further exhibit how microwave breast cancer detection can become a prosperous clinical complement to the traditional methods of mammography.

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Abstract:: This approach avoids complex image reconstruction algorithms by synthetically focusing reflections from the breast. As the illuminating signal is ultra-wideband, this translates to simply time-shifting and summing signals. This imaging method also differs from tomographic microwave imaging in terms of the overall goal. This goal of this method is to identify the presence and general location of the significant scatterers in the breast, rather than to recover the complete dielectric properties of the breast

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Abstract:: Altogether, based on the information presented in these modules, we explored the potential usage of active microwave imaging as an imaging modality for early detection of breast cancer. The main techniques in active microwave imaging involve two main methods: 2D microwave tomographic imaging and confocal microwave imaging (CMI), CMI has been the focus of the associated modules. In using the CMI method the location of a tumor could be satisfactorily detected as the strength of the reflected signals in the time domain varies with the dielectric contrast. So the main goal of CMI was to find the locations of dielectric contrast and this was achieved. Models have been quite significant in the development of biomedical technology. These CMI models prove that there are good reasons to believe that active microwave imaging can be considered for early breast cancer detection.