Microwave Radar for Breast Health Monitoring: System Performance Protocol

We here report on a protocol of system performance for the microwave radar breast health monitoring prototype. The device aims to detect breast cancer at an early stage and operates in the multistatic mode with 16 transceiving antennas. After introducing hardware changes, we developed a system performance protocol to repeatably test our system in preparation for clinical trials. It includes repeated scans using breast phantoms, and we investigated if the phantoms can be used without a matching medium not only with an ideally-fitting antenna housing, but also with the prosthetic bra used in clinical trials. We compare the system performance with both antenna housing options and introduce a system performance protocol for the clinical trials.