Portable Scanner Enables Quicker Breast Cancer Detection

(University of Manchester)

An engineering professor at University of Manchester in the U.K. has invented a portable scanner based on radio frequency (microwave) technology, which can show in a second the presence of tumors -– both malignant and benign -– in the breast of a patient on a computer. The device can be used at a primary care facility or even at home, rather than requiring a specialist.

Engineering professor Zhipeng Wu, who invented the scanner, says concerned patients can receive real-time video images using the radio frequency scanner which would clearly and simply show the presence of a tumor (example pictured right). The patented real-time scanner uses computer tomography and works with the same basic technology as a mobile phone.

Wu says radio frequency or microwave technology for breast cancer detection has been demonstrated by researchers in the US, Canada, and the U.K. Until now, however, it could take a few minutes for an image to be produced, and the test had to be done in a hospital or specialist care center.

The main difference between traditional mammography and radio frequency scanning is that mammography works on density, while radio frequency technique works on dielectric contrasts between normal and diseased breast tissues. Dielectric media cause polarization of the electrical flow into positive and negative charges.

In Professor Wu’s device, as soon as the breast enters the cup an image appears on screen. The presence of a tumor or other abnormality will show up in red as the sensor detects the difference in tissue contrasts at radio frequencies.  Malignant tissues have higher permittivity (effect on a dielectric medium) and conductivity and therefore appear differently than normal tissues on a screen.