Systematic Analysis of Microwave Breast Imaging Detection of Different-Sized Malignant and Benign Tumors

Microwave Imaging (MWI) has been explored as an alternative to conventional breast tumor screening methods. It is acknowledged that benign and malignant tumors can be distinguishable by their architectural features: benign tumors are often round with well-defined margin, while malignant tumors have an ill-defined margin and are micro-lobulated or spiculated. We present a MWI-based systematic analysis of malignant and benign breast tumors of different sizes, to evaluate if its characteristics allow differentiating the images. To this end, we performed measurements on a dry MW setup, using a slot-based antenna in the 2-5 GHz frequency range to scan an anthropomorphic breast phantom. We placed inside eight malignant and benign tumors with 3, 4, ... 10 mm average radius, one at a time. This study shows that both types of tumors can be detected, but not distinguishable only via MWI. Smaller tumors become harder to detect, the 3 mm tumor being unreliably caught.