Microwave Imaging for Early Breast Cancer Detection: Current State, Challenges, and Future Directions

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer type and is the leading cause of cancer-related death among females worldwide. Breast screening and early detection are currently the most successful approaches for the management and treatment of this disease. Several imaging modalities are currently utilized for detecting breast cancer, of which microwave imaging (MWI) is gaining quite a lot of attention as a promising diagnostic tool for early breast cancer detection. MWI is a noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, fast, convenient, and safe screening tool. The purpose of this paper is to provide an up-to-date survey of the principles, developments, and current research status of MWI for breast cancer detection. This paper is structured into two sections; the first is an overview of current MWI techniques used for detecting breast cancer, followed by an explanation of the working principle behind MWI and its various types, namely, microwave tomography and radar-based imaging. In the second section, a review of the initial experiments along with more recent studies on the use of MWI for breast cancer detection is presented. Furthermore, the paper summarizes the challenges facing MWI as a breast cancer detection tool and provides future research directions. On the whole, MWI has proven its potential as a screening tool for breast cancer detection, both as a standalone or complementary technique. However, there are a few challenges that need to be addressed to unlock the full potential of this imaging modality and translate it to clinical settings.

Diagnostic Strategies for Breast Cancer Detection: From Image Generation to Classification Strategies Using Artificial Intelligence Algorithms

“…To have the best possible results, some works propose that the tissue must be immersed in a liquid [ 25 ]. In this sense, some works have proposed acquisition systems that deal with this issue [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

Non-Invasive Microwave-Based Imaging System for Early Detection of Breast Tumours

“…In addition to the common advantages mentioned above, MWI methods show other benefits such as appropriate spatial resolution and image depth for breast tumour detection, the possibility of early detection and tumour detection in dense breasts (especially needed for young patients), relatively low cost and reduced measurement-processing and image-generation times. In this sense, medical imaging systems based on signals with microwave-range frequencies are rising as a promising technique for on-time detection of this kind of breast cancer [ 4 , 8 ]. Moreover, microwave-based images can be used for the detection and characterisation of biological materials [ 9 ], thus providing interesting additional information.…”

“…Whereas tomography techniques can achieve remarkable precision, the image-generation processing usually requires considerable time, even dozens of minutes [ 19 , 20 ]. Radar techniques, conversely, can produce the images in a faster manner with similar precision [ 8 ], although they require sophisticated calibration techniques [ 4 ], usually made with in-lab measurements of biological phantoms.…”

Machine-Learning-Enabled Recovery of Prior Information From Experimental Breast Microwave Imaging Data

“…Ongoing research in the inverse scattering and microwave imaging communities has shown that the reconstruction of models of the human breast can provide information on the structure and material properties of breast tissue both synthetically and experimentally [1,2]. Microwave imaging technologies do not generate high resolution images like those obtained from x-ray or computed tomography (CT), but by using microwaves rather than x-rays, the technology is beneficial as it relies on non-ionizing radiation and may have utility as a lower-cost screening tool [3]. An effective screening tool would provide information to characterize different tissue regions within the breast based on location, geometry, and physical properties of the tissue.…”