Microwave imaging of breast cancer with factorization method: SPIONs as contrast agent

Female breast at macroscopic scale is a nonmagnetic medium, which eliminates the possibility of realizing microwave imaging of the breast cancer based on magnetic permeability variations. However, by administering functionalized, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as a contrast material to modulate magnetic permeability of cancer cells, a small variation on the scattered electric field from the breast is achievable under an external, polarizing magnetic field.

We demonstrate an imaging technique that can locate cancerous tumors inside the breast due to electric field variations caused by SPION tracers under different magnetic field intensities. Furthermore, we assess the feasibility of SPION-enhanced microwave imaging for breast cancer with simulations performed on a multi-static imaging configuration.

The imaging procedure is realized as the factorization method of qualitative inverse scattering theory, which is essentially a shape retrieval algorithm for inaccessible objects. The formulation is heuristically modified to accommodate the scattering parameters instead of the electric field to comply with the requirements of experimental microwave imaging systems.

With full-wave electromagnetic simulations performed on an anthropomorphically realistic breast phantom, which is excited with a cylindrical imaging prototype of 18 dipole antenna arranged as a single row, the technique is able to locate cancerous tumors for a experimentally achievable doses.

The technique generates nonanatomic microwave images, which map the cancerous tumors depending on the concentration of SPION tracers, to aid the diagnosis of the breast cancer.