Detect The Early Breast Tumor Via Beamforming Algorithm

Breast cancer is becoming one of the primary malignant cancers which are harmful to women's health. The early detection is very significant for long-term survival of the breast cancer patients. Now the most common breast cancer detection method such as X-ray mammography, MRI, CT, despite their advantages, there are some limitations and potential risk to limit its application as a regular screening for early breast cancer detection. Recently, the ultra-wideband (UWB) imaging technique for the breast cancer detection is developed intensively based on the high contrast in the electric properties of malignant tumor related to normal fatty breast tissue, which is approximately 5:1 in the relative dielectric constant and 10:1 in the conductivity at microwave frequencies. This technology has many obvious advantages such as accurate, safe, inexpensive, sensitive, and painless and it can provide both the enough imaging resolution and the adequate penetration depth in the breast.In this paper, the two-dimensional planar breast model for obtaining the data is demonstrated. The microwave propagation in the breast is simulated by the finite difference time domain method (FDTD). The dispersive properties of the normal breast fatty, the skin, the tumor, and the chest wall are taken into consideration by single pole Debye model to approach the real electrical properties of the breast. Especially the Perfectly matched layer absorption boundary condition (PML ABC) in the case of single pole Debye model is taken into consideration.Two imaging algorithms are introduced, confocal microwave imaging and Capon beamforming imaging. Some examples are proposed to verify the imaging algorithms are correct. By studying these examples, the superiority of the Capon beamforming imaging algorithm is manifested.