3-D quantitative microwave breast imaging system for comparison with MRI

描述(由申请人提供)：迫切需要开发一种负担得起的、非电离的三维(3D)定量成像模式，用于筛查乳腺癌风险较高的妇女，并监测乳房组织特性的变化，以响应治疗方案。鉴于人们日益认识到乳房密度在个体化风险评估和预防决策中的重要性，也出现了开发这样一种模式的需要，以评估普通人群的乳房密度，并监测预防干预措施后密度的变化。3-D微波成像是一种非电离分子成像技术，可以感知乳腺组织的内源性(可能是外源性影响)介电特性，具有满足这些需求的巨大潜力。长期目标是开发微波成像，并将其整合到乳房护理临床医生可用的工具库中。这项旨在实现这一长期目标的项目的目标是开发和评估基于先进传感器硬件、算法和计算平台的三维定量微波成像系统，并论证以临床三维基准乳腺MRI为对照进行微波成像严格验证的可行性。为了实现这一目标，将追求以下具体目标：1)构建一个紧凑、高效的3-D微波传感器系统，使其能够与核磁共振共同配准；2)开发计算效率高的高分辨率3-D微波成像算法，并将其与硬件系统集成；以及3)与人类研究对象进行小规模概念验证成像研究。该项目在临床应用和技术方法上都是创新的。首先，乳腺密度评估和乳腺癌的对比度增强检测代表了微波成像的两个新方向。其次，我们的非侵入式定量微波成像系统将在密集的3-D阵列中使用高效的多频段小型化天线和多频率、生理约束的3-D逆散射算法。最重要的是，一种创新的系统配置将在MRI(基准)和微波(测试)扫描期间保持乳房的位置，从而实现对微波乳房成像的客观和明确的验证。这项拟议的研究具有重要意义，因为它有望为3-D微波乳房成像的有效性提供临床证据，并最终产生一种负担得起、广泛可用的安全成像解决方案，用于在普通人群中进行自动化、定量的乳房密度评估，并在目前服务不足的已知风险较高的女性亚群中进行癌症筛查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a critical need to develop an affordable, non-ionizing, three-dimensional (3-D) quantitative imaging modality for screening women who are at higher risk for breast cancer and monitoring changes in breast tissue properties in response to treatment protocols. Given increasing recognition of the importance of breast density in individualized risk assessment and prevention decisions, there is also an emerging need to develop such a modality for evaluating breast density in the general population and monitoring changes in density in response to preventative interventions. 3-D microwave imaging - a non-ionizing molecular imaging technique that senses the endogenous (and possibly exogenously influenced) dielectric properties of breast tissue - has great potential to meet these needs. The long-term goal is to develop and integrate microwave imaging into the arsenal of tools available to the breast care clinician. The objective of this project, which is directed toward achieving this long-term goal, is to develop and evaluate a 3-D quantitative microwave imaging system based on advanced sensor hardware, algorithms, and computational platforms and to demonstrate the feasibility of performing a rigorous validation of microwave imaging against breast MRI, a clinical 3-D benchmark. The following specific aims will be pursued to achieve this objective: 1) Construct a compact, efficient 3-D microwave sensor system that enables co-registration with MRI; 2) Develop computationally efficient high- resolution 3-D microwave imaging algorithms that are integrated with the hardware system; and 3) Conduct a small-scale proof-of-concept imaging study with human research subjects. The project is innovative both in terms of the clinical applications and the technical approach. First, breast density evaluation and contrast- enhanced detection of breast cancer represent two new directions for microwave imaging. Second, our non- invasive quantitative microwave imaging system will employ efficient multi-band miniaturized antennas in a dense 3-D array and multi-frequency, physiologically constrained, 3-D inverse scattering algorithms. Most importantly, an innovative system configuration will maintain the position of the breast during both the MRI (benchmark) and microwave (test) scans, enabling an objective and unambiguous validation of microwave breast imaging. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to provide clinical evidence of the efficacy of 3-D microwave breast imaging and ultimately yield an affordable, widely available, and safe imaging solution for automated, quantitative breast density evaluation in the general population and cancer screening in a currently underserved sub-population of women who are known to be at higher risk.