volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Ultra Wideband (UWB) radar is a promising emerging technology for breast cancer detection based on the dielectric contrast between normal and tumour tissues at microwave frequencies. One of the most important considerations in developing a UWB imaging system is the configuration of the antenna array. Two specfic configurations are currently under investigation, planar and cylindrical. The planar configuration involves placing a conformal array of antennas on the naturally attened breast with the patient lying in the supine position. Conversely, the circular configuration involves the patient lying in the prone position, with the breast surrounded by a circular array of antennas. In order to effectively test the two antenna configurations, two 2D Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) models of the breast are created, and are used to simulate backscattered signals generated when the breast is illuminated by UWB pulses. The backscattered signals recorded from each antenna configuration are passed through a UWB beamformer and images of the backscattered energy are created. The performance of each imaging approach is evaluated by both quantitative methods and visual inspection, for a number of test conditions. System performance as a function of number of antennas, variation in tissue properties, and tumour location are examined.

1. Society, A. C., "Cancer facts and figures 2008," American Cancer Society, 2008.

2. Nass, S. L., I. C. Henderson, and J. C. Lashof, Mammography and Beyond: Developing Technologies for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer, National Academy Press, 2001.

3. Elmore, J. G., M. B. Barton, V. M. Moceri, S. Polk, P. J. Arena, and S. W. Fletcher, "Ten-year risk of false positive screening mammograms and clinical breast examinations," New Eng. J. Med., Vol. 338, No. 16, 1089-1096, 1998.
doi:10.1056/NEJM199804163381601

4. Huynh, P. H., A. M. Jarolimek, and S. Daye, "The false-negative mammogram," Radio Graphics, Vol. 18, 1137-1154, 1998.

5. MacDonald, F. and C. H. J. Ford, Molecular Biology of Cancer, BIOS Scientific Publishers Limited, 1997.

6. Hagness, S. C., A. Taflove, and J. E. Bridges, "Two-dimensional FDTD analysis of a pulsed microwave confocal system for breast cancer detection: Fixed-focus and antenna-array sensors," IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., Vol. 45, No. 12, 1470-1479, 1998.
doi:10.1109/10.730440

7. Bulyshev, A. E., S. Y. Semenov, A. E. Souvorov, R. H. Svenson, A. G. Nazorov, Y. E. Sizov, and G. P. Tatsis, "Computational modeling of three-dimensional microwave tomography of breast cancer," IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., Vol. 48, No. 9, 1053-1056, Sep. 2001.
doi:10.1109/10.942596

8. Meaney, P. M., M. W. Fanning, D. Li, S. P. Poplack, and K. D. Paulsen, "A clinical prototype for active microwave imaging of the breast," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 48, No. 11, 1841-1853, Nov. 2000.
doi:10.1109/22.883861

9. Meaney, P. M., K. D. Paulsen, J. T. Chang, M. W. Fanning, and A. Hartov, "Nonactive antenna compensation for fixed array microwave imaging Part II --- Imaging results ," IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., Vol. 18, No. 6, 508-518, Jun. 1999.
doi:10.1109/42.781016

10. Souvorov, A. E., A. E. Bulyshev, S. Y. Semenov, R. H. Svenson, and G. P. Tatsis, "Two dimensional analysis of a microwave flat antenna array for breast cancer tomography," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 48, No. 8, 1413-1415, Aug. 2000.
doi:10.1109/22.859490

11. Liu, Q. H., Z. Q. Zhang, T. Wang, J. A. Byran, G. A. Ybarra, L. W. Nolte, and W. T. Joines, "Active microwave imaging 1 --- 2-D forward and inverse scattering methods," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 50, No. 1, 123-133, Jan. 2002.
doi:10.1109/22.981256

12. Meaney, P. M., M. W. Fanning, T. Raynolds, C. J. Fox, Q. Fang, C. A. Kogel, S. P. Poplack, and K. D. Paulsen, "Initial clinical experience with microwave breast imaging in women with normal Mammography," Academic Radiology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 207-218, 2007.
doi:10.1016/j.acra.2006.10.016

13. Kosmas, P. and C. M. Rappaport, "Time reversal with the FDTD method for microwave breast cancer detection," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 53, No. 7, 2317-2323, Jul. 2005.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2005.850444

14. Kosmas, P. and C. M. Rappaport, "FDTD-based time reversal for microwave breast cancer detection-localization in three dimensions," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 54, No. 4, 1921-1927, Jun. 2006.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2006.871994

15. Hagness, S. C., A. Taflove, and J. E. Brdiges, "Three-dimensional FDTD analysis of a pulsed microwave confocal system for breast cancer detection: Design of an antenna array element," IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagat., Vol. 47, 783-791, May 1999.
doi:10.1109/8.774131

16. Fear, E. C., X. Li, S. C. Hagness, and M. A. Stuchly, "Confocal microwave imaging for breast cancer detection: Localization of tumors in three dimensions," IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., Vol. 49, No. 8, 812, 2002.
doi:10.1109/TBME.2002.800759

17. Fear, E. C. and M. A. Stuchly, "Microwave system for breast tumor detection," IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, Vol. 9, No. 11, 470-472, Nov. 1999.
doi:10.1109/75.808040

18. Fear, E. C., J. Sill, and M. A. Stuchly, "Experimental feasibility study of confocal microwave imaging for breast tumor detection," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 51, No. 3, 887-892, Mar. 2003.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2003.808630

19. Fear, E., J. Sill, and M. Stuchly, "Microwave system for breast tumor detection: Experimental concept evaluation," IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/URSI Radio Science Meeting, Vol. 1, 819-822, Jun. 2002.

20. Li, X. and S. C. Hagness, "A confocal microwave imaging algorithm for breast cancer detection," IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol. 11, No. 3, 130-132, 2001.
doi:10.1109/7260.915627

21. Li, X., E. J. Bond, B. D. V. Veen, and S. Hagness, "An overview of ultra-wideband microwave imaging via space-time beamforming for early-stage breast-cancer detection," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 47, No. 1, 19-34, Feb. 2005.
doi:10.1109/MAP.2005.1436217

22. Craddock, I. J., R. Nilavalan, J. Leendertz, A. Preece, and R. Benjamin, "Experimental investigation of real aperture synthetically organised radar for breast cancer detection," IEEE AP-S Inter. Sym., Vol. 1B, 179-182, 2005.

23. Hernandez-Lopez, M., M. Quintillan-Gonzalez, S. Garcia, A. Bretones, and R. Martin, "A rotating array of antennas for confocal microwave breast imaging," Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., Vol. 39, No. 4, 307-311, 2003.
doi:10.1002/mop.11199

24. De Rodriguez, M. E., M. Vera-Isasa, and V. Del Rio, "3-D microwave breast tumor detection: Study of system performance," IEEE Trans. Biomedical Eng., Vol. 55, No. 12, 2772-2777, Dec. 2008.
doi:10.1109/TBME.2008.2003082

25. Davis, S. K., E. J. Bond, X. Li, S. C. Hagness, and B. D. Van-Veen, "Microwave imaging via space-time beamforming for the early detection of breast cancer: Beamformer design in the frequency domain," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 17, No. 2, 357-381, 2003.
doi:10.1163/156939303322235860

26. Bond, E. J., X. Li, S. C. Hagness, and B. D. V. Veen, "Microwave imaging via space-time beamforming for early detection of breast cancer," IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagat., Vol. 51, No. 8, 1690-1705, Aug. 2003.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2003.815446

27. Joines, W., Y. Zhang, C. Li, and R. L. Jirtle, "The measured electrical properties of normal and malignant human tissues from 50 to 900 MHz," Med. Phys., Vol. 21, 547-550, 1993.

28. Sha, L., E. R. Ward, and B. Stroy, "A review of the dielectric properties of normal and malignant breast tissue," Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon, 457-462, Apr. 2002.

29. Surowiec, A. J., S. S. Stuchly, J. R. Barr, and A. Swarup, "Dielectric properties of breast carcinoma and the surrounding tissues," IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., Vol. 35, No. 4, 257-263, 1988.
doi:10.1109/10.1374

30. Campbell, A. M. and D. V. Land, "Dielectric properties of female human breast tissue measured in vitro at 3.2 GHz," Phys. Med. Biol., Vol. 37, No. 1, 193-210, 1992.
doi:10.1088/0031-9155/37/1/014

31. Lazebnik, M., et al. "A large-scale study of the ultrawideband microwave dielectric properties of normal, benign and malignant breast tissues obtained from cancer surgeries," Phys. Med. Biol., Vol. 52, 6093-6115, 2007.
doi:10.1088/0031-9155/52/20/002

32. Lazebnik, M., L. McCartney, D. Popovic, C. B. Watkins, M. J. Lindstrom, J. Harter, S. Sewall, A. Magliocco, J. H. Booske, M. Okoniewski, and S. C. Hagness, "A large-scale study of the ultrawideband microwave dielectric properties of normal breast tissue obtained from reduction surgeries," Phys. Med. Biol., Vol. 52, 2637-2656, 2007.
doi:10.1088/0031-9155/52/10/001

33. Hagness, S. C., A. Taflove, M. Popovic, and J. E. Bridges, Microwave Discrimination between Malignant and Benign Breast Tumors, Patent: 6421550, 2002.

34. Joines, W. T., "Frequency-dependent absorption of electromagnetic energy in biological tissue," IEEE Trans. Biomedical Eng., Vol. 31, No. 1, 17-20, 1984.
doi:10.1109/TBME.1984.325365

35. Pethig, R., "Dielectric properties of biological materials: Biophysical and medical applications," IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation, Vol. E1-E1, No. 5, 453-474, 1984.
doi:10.1109/TEI.1984.298769

36. Chaudhary, S. S., R. K. Mishra, A. Swarup, and J. M. Thomas, "Dielectric properties of normal and malignant human breast tissue at radiowave and microwave frequencies," Indian J. Biochem. Biophys., Vol. 21, 76-79, 1984.

37. Nilavalan, R., A. Gbedemah, X. Li, and S. C. Hagness, "Numerical investigation of breast tumour detection using multi-static radar," IET Electronic Letters, Vol. 39, No. 25, 1787-1789, Dec. 2003.
doi:10.1049/el:20031183

38. O'Halloran, M., M. Glavin, and E. Jones, "Quasi-multistatic MIST beamforming for the early detection of breast cancer," IEEE rans. Biomedical Eng., in press.

39. Fear, E. C. and M. A. Stuchly, "Microwave detection of breast cancer," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 48, No. 11, 1854-1863, Nov. 2000.
doi:10.1109/22.883862

40. Xie, Y., B. Guo, L. Xu, J. Li, and P. Stoica, "Multistatic adaptive microwave imaging for early breast cancer detection," IEEE Trans. Biomedical Eng., Vol. 53, No. 8, 1647-1657, 2006.
doi:10.1109/TBME.2006.878058

41. Klemm, M., I. J. Craddock, J. A. Leendertz, A. Preece, and R. Benjamin, "Improved delay-and-sum beamforming algorithm for breast cancer detection," International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 2008, 2008.

42. Fear, E. C. and M. Okoniewski, "Confocal microwave imaging for breast tumor detection: Application to a hemispherical breast model," Microwave Symposium Digest, 2002 IEEE MTT-S International, Vol. 3, 1759-1762, 2002.

43. Xie, Y., B. Guo, J. Li, and P. Stoica, "Novel multistatic adaptive microwave imaging methods for early breast cancer detection," EURASIP J. Appl. Si. P., Vol. 2006, Article ID: 91961, 1-13, 2006.
doi:10.1051/epjap:2006101

44. Klemm, M., I. J. Craddock, J. Leendertz, A. W. Preece, and R. Benjamin, "Breast cancer detection using symmetrical antenna array," Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP'07), 1-5, Nov. 2007.

45. Craddock, I. J., M. Klemm, J. Leendertz, A. W. Preece, and R. Benjamin, "Development and application of a UWB radar system for breast imaging," Antennas and Propagation Conference, 2008. LAPC 2008. Loughborough, 24-27, 2008.
doi:10.1109/LAPC.2008.4516856

46. Conceicao, R. C., M. O'Halloran, M. Glavin, and E. Jones, "Antenna configurations for ultra wide band radar detection of breast cancer," SPIE BIOS West, Vol. 7169, Jan. 2009.

47. Gabriel, C. and S. Gabriel. (Last accessed: Sept. 2009) Compilation of the Dielectric Properties of Body Tissues at RF and Microwave Frequencies, [Online]. Available: http://niremf.ifac.cnr.it/tissprop/.

48. Lim, H. B., N. T. T. Nhung, E. P. Li, and N. D. Thang, "Confocal microwave imaging for breast cancer detection: Delay-multiplyand-sum image reconstruction algorithm," IEEE Trans. Biomedical Eng., Vol. 55, No. 6, 1697-1704, June 2008.
doi:10.1109/TBME.2008.919716

Dr. Raquel Cruz Conceicao

Dr. Martin O'Halloran

Dr. Martin Glavin

Dr. Edward Jones