ultraMAMMA II - Dynamic UWB microwave imaging for breast cancer detection

研究项目ultraMAMMA旨在利用超宽带微波传感的特定特性，将其用于医学成像和乳腺癌检测。尽管UWB技术具有生物物理（无害和非电离组织穿透）和系统概念（紧凑、价格合理、电路集成）等优点，但迄今为止还不能在临床实践中建立。该项目将调查临床应用中的关键问题，并制定相关解决方案。所请求的项目延续的目的与两个主要课题有关，将在两个工作包中开展工作：1.基于志愿者和患者的真实的临床测量，评价和进一步开发UWB乳腺成像的已建立的本地（无任何造影剂）方法 2.基于磁调制MNP的乳腺癌检测对比度增强动态方法的新开发/进一步开发和实验分析，以改善可疑癌灶的识别，特别是在致密乳腺组织中。 在ultraMAMMA的上一个资助阶段建立了临床UWB乳腺成像的伦理、法律的和技术基础之后，现在将在志愿者和患者的基础上全面开展临床测量、评价并与其他模式（乳腺X线摄影/ Mamma MRI）进行比较（工作包1）。在工作包2中，必须增强新引入的基于磁性纳米颗粒（MNP）的磁调制的差分原位成像方法，以便稳健地检测肿瘤中临床上真实的MNP量（< 5 mg），并且满足临床工作流程的要求。

The research project ultraMAMMA aims for utilize the specific properties of ultra wideband microwave sensing in order to use it for medical imaging and detection of breast cancer. Despite of the advantageous biophysical (harmless and non-ionizing tissue penetration) and system conceptual (compact, reasonably priced, circuit integration) properties, UWB technology could not be established in clinical practice so far. Critical problems complicating the clinical application will be investigated in the project and related solutions will be developed.The aims of the requested project continuation are related to two main topics to be worked on in two work packages:1. Evaluation and further development of the established native (without any contrast agents) approach of UWB breast imaging based on real clinical measurements of volunteers and patients 2. New development / further development and experimental analysis of a contrast enhancing dynamic approach for breast cancer detection based on magnetic modulated MNP in order to improve the identification of suspicious cancer foci, especially in dense breast tissue. After establishing the ethical, legal and technological basis for clinical UWB breast imaging in the previous funding phase of ultraMAMMA, the clinical measurements are now to be carried out, evaluated and compared with other modalities (mammography / Mamma MRI) in the full extend based on volunteers and patients (work package 1). In work package 2, a newly introduced differential in situ imaging approach based on magnetic modulation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) has to be enhanced in order to detect clinically realistic MNP quantities in the tumor (< 5 mg) robustly and in order to meet the requirements of clinical workflow.