Experimental modeling of breast cancer detection by using radar aids

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women. Due to this fact, providing methods to assess the early-stage diagnosis and treatment of the breast cancer is of a great interest for researchers in the last decades. The article describes in detail the experiment of imaging breast tumors using radar aids. The development of microwave breast cancer detection and treatment techniques has been driven by reports of substantial contrast in the dielectric properties of malignant and normal breast tissues. During the experiment, two different phantoms of breast were used: one without the dielectric inclusions, another with dielectric inclusions mimicking malignancy of the breast tissue. The materials of the phantoms were selected in such a way as to its dielectric properties were same the dielectric properties of biological tissues of the breast. During the experiments a vector network analyzer (Rohde&Schwarz) with a single helical antenna attached was used for measuring of S ₁₁ parameters. The antenna was pointed to the phantom behind which radio absorbing material was placed to reduce the clutter. Mechanical scanner controlled by Seeduino was used to move the phantom. We conducted measurements at frequencies from 5.6 to 6.6 GHz, 14 to 15 GHz and from 21 to 22 GHz with a step of 0.2 GHz. Obtained images were processed by using software "RASCAN-Q". It was shown that the applied method allows to detect dielectric inhomogeneities in biological tissues. The results, published in the article, have been obtained in the framework of the implementation of the project part of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant No. 26 16-37-00276\16).