Possibilities of microwave imaging in medicine

Abstract

Over the last decade there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with cancer worldwide. Although the new methods of cancer treatment are very effective, successful treatment is possible only with diagnosing the early stages of the disease. Therefore, creating new and harmless methods for early or pre-clinical diagnosis of cancer is an important task at present. The report describes the main issues and challenges related to development of microwave imaging systems of biological objects. The original hardware-software system for the study of biological objects was created. The system operates in the frequency range of 137.5 - 4400 MHz and has a sensitivity of 55 dB. The study and visualization of investigated object is performed according to the measurement scattering in the near field region. Solutions of salts and glucose were used as phantoms of biological objects. The fundamental possibility of detection and visualization of contrast areas of the internal environment as the gradients of the permittivity and conductivity is shown.