Implementation of Active Microwave Imaging Methods to Improve Early Signs of Breast Cancer Detection
Summary: Title of Project, Abstract, Background and References
Implementation of Active Microwave Imaging Methods to Improve Early Signs of Breast Cancer Detection
Abstract— Active microwave imaging methods are explored and reviewed as imaging modalities 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]. These imaging methods are described to suggest improvements on early signs of breast cancer detection on subjects by using various microwave methods to examine the dielectric responses and properties of breast tissues and to construct images from the information gathered. The methods researched allow for earlier detection of cancerous tumors than the current methods that detect cancers symptomatically. Results of the research will aid the hypothesis that microwave breast cancer detection can become a flourishing clinical complement to the conventional methods of mammography.
I. INTRODUCTION
Breast cancer is a serious medical issue that has overwhelmed many families and lives. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded by lung cancer [6]. In the U.S. alone, in 2006 the number of new cases of breast cancer in women was estimated to be 212920.1 Emphasized in [7], early detection is the best protection and key to defeating breast cancer. From this, one can propose that breast cancers detected using screening methods will tend to have better prognoses.
Currently, the most integral component of screening methods is mammography. This method consists of X-ray imaging of a compressed breast. Although this widely used method for screening and diagnosing has significantly progressed, it still has several undesirable flaws. According to a report from [8], limitations of mammography include missing up to 15% of breast cancers, difficulty in imaging women with dense breasts, and inconclusive results. The issue of inconclusive results is also evident in a recent report on breast screening programs in Canada [9]. Also, mammography reported high false-negative rates (4%-34%) [10] and high false-positive rates (70%) [11], particularly in patients with radiographically dense breast tissue [12]. In addition to the statistics, another downfall to mammography is attributed by the discomfort due to the breast compressions that occur during the procedure. The limitations of the X-ray mammography are great reasons to explore other methods for reliable and consistent detection of malignant tumors.
Microwave breast cancer detection has the ability to offer many desirable characteristics outlined in a report published by [7]. The report lists what an ideal breast screening tool would offer such as: having low health risk; sensitive to tumors and specific to malignancies; detects breast cancer detection at a curable stage; is noninvasive and simple to perform; is cost effective and widely available; involves minimal discomfort, so the procedure is acceptable to women; and provides easy to interpret, objective, and consistent results. The microwave imaging methods are appealing to patients because it avoids ionizing radiation and breast compression, resulting in safer and more comfortable exams. Microwave imaging also has the potential for good ROC characteristics such as sensitivity (TPF) and specificity (TNF), to detect small tumors. It can be less expensive than MRSI’s and nuclear medicine. Also, the process is anticipated to be quite rapid. This is because it is anticipated that the contrast between normal tissues and malignancies are more significant than the density contrast imaged by X-rays.
The malignant breast tissues exhibit considerable increase in bound water content compared to the normal tissues and hence a high value of dielectric permittivity. When exposed to microwaves, the high water content of malignant breast tissues cause significant microwave scattering than normal fatty breast tissues that have low water content [13]. Breast tissue dielectric properties above 3 GHz can be estimated by extrapolating the results of [1], [2], [4], and others, in manners that follows the frequency dependence for general tissues report by other researchers (Figure 1).
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Figure 1. Single-pole Debye curve fits of measured baseline dielectric-properties data for normal and malignant breast tissue at radio and microwave frequencies [14].
During the past several decades, there have been numerous modalities of microwave imaging that have been considered, including passive, hybrid, and active approaches. Passive methods incorporate radiometers to measure the temperature differences in the breast, detecting tumors based on increased temperature when compared to normal tissues. Hybrid methods use microwave energy to selectively heat tumors and then uses ultrasound transducers to detect pressure waves generated by the expansion of the heated tissues. Active methods use tomography image reconstruction and ultra-wideband confocal microwave imaging methods. This involves illuminating the breast with microwaves and then measuring transmitted or reflected microwave signals. The 3 different microwave imaging methods are exhibited in Figure 2.
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Figure 2. Methods of breast imaging at microwave frequencies [7].
(a) Passive approaches involve detecting areas of increased temperature, which correspond to tumors. (b) Hybrid methods heat with microwaves. Ultrasound transducers detect the pressure waves generated by tissue expansion. (c) Active approaches involve illuminating the breast with microwave and then forming images with energy transmitted through or reflected from the breast.
The studies presented in this investigation analyze two main approaches using active microwave imaging methods to detect cancerous tumors at early stages. The details of the two methods are gathered through multiple research papers that discuss active microwave imaging. The first method consists of microwave tomographic imaging with measured scattered signals to quantitatively compute the spatial distributions of the dielectric constant and conductivity. The second method consists of confocal microwave imaging (CMI) with reflected signals.
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