Thermoacoustic Imaging For Breast Cancer Detection

描述(由申请人提供)： 这项建议描述了一项研究计划，以开发超宽带步进频率微波诱导热声成像(TAI)系统的实验原型，以成像乳房体模。最近的研究表明，利用微波诱导的热声波对人体乳房进行成像以检测癌症是一项可行的技术。这项新技术具有理想的早期乳腺癌筛查的许多理想特性，包括无创、安全、舒适、廉价、(对肿瘤)敏感和(对癌症)特异性。事实上，微波诱导的TAI结合了微波刺激和声学成像的优点，前者在癌组织和正常乳腺组织之间提供了极好的对比度，后者具有非常精细的毫米范围空间分辨率的优势。然而，到目前为止，对真实人体乳房的实验成像结果比在相当理想的实验装置下得到的结果差得多。本研究的目的是在快速通道应用的第一阶段，找出在人体乳房成像的现实条件下微波诱导TAI所遇到的关键问题，并提出解决这些问题的创新技术：1.开发一个原型超宽带步进频率微波诱导TAI系统来对乳房模型成像，2.演示多频刺激对乳房模型异常检测的好处，以及3.验证使用自适应信号处理算法用于热声成像和乳房模型异常检测的优点。到这项研究完成时，我们将开发和评估一个超宽带步进频率微波诱导TAI系统的实验原型，以成像乳房体模。我们将为第二阶段的工作获得足够的支持证据和经验。我们最终预计，这项研究和后续研究的结果将为从电磁学和声学到用于热声成像的自适应波束形成和用于早期癌症检测的模式识别等广泛的多学科研究提供新的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal describes a research program to develop an experimental prototype ultrawideband stepped frequency microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) system to image a breast phantom. Recent studies have shown that imaging the human breast for cancer detection with microwave-induced thermoacoustic waves is a viable technology. This new technology has many desirable properties of an ideal early breast cancer screener including being noninvasive, safe, comfortable, inexpensive, sensitive (to tumors), and specific (to cancers). Indeed, microwave-induced TAI combines the merits of both microwave stimulation, which provides excellent contrast between cancerous and normal breast tissue, and acoustic imaging, which has the advantage of very fine millimeter range spatial resolution. However, so far the experimental imaging results of real human breast are much poorer than those obtained under rather idealistic experimental setup. The goal of this study is to identify the key problems encountered by the microwaveinduced TAI under the realistic conditions of human breast imaging and propose innovative techniques to mitigate these problems, during Phase I of the fast-track application: 1. develop a prototype ultrawideband stepped-frequency microwave-induced TAI system to image a breast phantom, 2. demonstrate the benefits of multiple frequency stimulation for breast phantom anomaly detection, and 3. demonstrate the merits of using adaptive signal processing algorithms for thermoacoustic image formation and breast phantom anomaly detection. By the completion of this study, we will have developed and evaluated an experimental prototype ultrawideband stepped frequency microwave-induced TAI system to image a breast phantom. We will have obtained sufficient supporting evidence and experience for the Phase II efforts. We finally anticipate that the results of this and subsequent studies will provide new opportunities in a wide range of multidisciplinary studies ranging from electromagnetics and acoustics to adaptive beamforming for thermoacoustic image formation and pattern recognition for early cancer detection.