Microwave imaging and spectroscopy of tissues

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This proposal focuses on low-power microwave imaging applied to two diagnostic problems in medicine. The first is breast screening, with the goal to detect early-stage cancers. The second is the characterization of the human skin, aiming to differentiate between melanoma and the benign lesions. Both biomedical applications stem from the same underlying hypothesis that the electric properties of the malign lesions differ from the healthy tissue in the microwave frequency range and that we can exploit this difference for diagnostic purposes. In the recent 2017 statistics, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) stated that, on average, 72 Canadian women are daily diagnosed with breast cancer and 14 Canadian women die from it. Here, I propose development of a low-cost, safe, microwave system that can detect breast cancer early, improving the chances of survival. The objective is to design a wearable system, with affordable components, thus making it accessible to small clinics for mass-screenings. The system complies Health Canada Safety Code 6 regulations. With no ionizing radiation (present in the recommended annual mammograms), the microwave-based diagnostic tool will used frequent, monthly scans to provide early warning about a developing abnormality. The result of the first research avenue is a wearable system that will complement the current diagnostic modalities, timely alerting the physician of a departure from the normal and the need for further tests and imaging. Further, CCS announced in 2017 that an estimated 7200 Canadians were diagnosed with and 1270 died from skin cancer melanoma. The suspicious lesions are visible on the surface, however, biopsy is required to determine whether the suspect tissue is malign. The biopsy is intrinsically invasive and is done at the request of an experienced dermatologist who deems it necessary. The specialists have very few tools at their disposal for making a decision on the lesion type and whether the biopsy is required. My recent interest is research on a safe, low-power broadband microwave diagnostic sensor, which will categorize the skin lesions based on their electric properties. For initial validation, we propose development of skin tissue phantoms, for controlled laboratory experiments. The result of the second research avenue is a diagnostic microwave sensor that will help the dermatologists identify the melanoma with increased confidence prior to requesting a biopsy analysis. The two research avenues proposed above will result in novel insights into dielectric properties of biological tissues and how their variation can affect successful microwave imaging and spectroscopy applications. The resulting personnel will be highly qualified in theoretical and applied electromagnetics, skilled in using numerical simulation tools as well as microwave instrumentation, and excellently positioned to contribute to the Canadian industry and academia.