Microwave Imaging for Early Breast Cancer Detection

Abstract

We overview the research trend on microwave imaging for early breast cancer detection. The technologies have two categories: ultra-wide band (UWB) radar that reconstructs the scattering power distribution in the breast and inverse scattering problem that reconstructs the dielectric properties distribution. We have developed a clinical equipment using UWB radar and carried out clinical test 4 years ago. Through the experiments, we concluded that the UWB radar was insufficient for the clinical equipment, because the UWB radar cannot discriminate cancerous tumor and other lesions. Therefore, we have been studying inverse scattering. It is a challenging task to develop an equipment using inverse scattering technologies. We have proposed a microwave mammography that has four features: (1) sensor with breast fixing by absorption, (2) small sensor with multipolarization, (3) image reconstruction program linking the commercial EM simulator, and (4) hybrid imaging method using UWB radar and inverse scattering.