High-Frequency (30 Mhz–6 Ghz) Breast Tissue Characterization Stabilized by Suction Force for Intraoperative Tumor Margin Assessment Publisher



Mokhtari Dowlatabad H¹ ; Mamdouh A¹ ; Yousefpour N¹ ; Mahdavi R¹ ; Zandi A¹ ; Hoseinpour P² ; Moosavikiasari SMS¹ ; Abbasvandi F³ ; Kordehlachin Y¹ ; Parniani M⁴ ; Mohammadpouraghdam K⁵ ; Faranoush P^{1, 6} ; Foroughigilvaee MR^{1, 6} ; Abdolahad M^{1, 7}
Source: Diagnostics Published:2023

Abstract

A gigahertz (GHz) range antenna formed by a coaxial probe has been applied for sensing cancerous breast lesions in the scanning platform with the assistance of a suction tube. The sensor structure was a planar central layer and a metallic sheath of size of 3 cm2 connected to a network analyzer (keySight FieldFox N9918A) with operational bandwidth up to 26.5 GHz. Cancer tumor cells have significantly higher water content (as a dipolar molecule) than normal breast cells, changing their polarization responses and dielectric losses to incoming GHz-based stimulation. Principal component analysis named S11, related to the dispersion ratio of the input signal, is used as a parameter to identify malignant tumor cells in a mouse model (in vivo) and tumor specimens of breast cancer patients (in vitro) (both central and marginal parts). The results showed that S11 values in the frequency range from 5 to 6 GHz were significantly higher in cancer-involved breast lesions. Histopathological analysis was the gold standard for achieving the S11 calibration to distinguish normal from cancerous lesions. Our calibration on tumor specimens presented 82% positive predictive value (PPV), 100% negative predictive value (NPV), and 86% accuracy. Our goal is to apply this system as an in vivo non-invasive tumor margin scanner after further investigations in the future. © 2023 by the authors.