Microwave Breast Imaging: Clinical Advances and Remaining Challenges

Objective: Microwave breast imaging has seen significant academic and commercial development in recent years, with four new operational microwave imaging systems used with patients since 2016. In this paper, a comprehensive review of these recent clinical advances is presented, comparing patient populations and study outcomes. For the first time, the designs of operational microwave imaging systems are compared in detail. Methods: First, the current understanding of dielectric properties of human breast tissues is reviewed, considering evidence from operational microwave imaging systems and from dielectric properties measurement studies. Second, design features of operational microwave imaging systems are discussed in terms of advantages and disadvantages during clinical operation. Results: Reported results from patient imaging trials are compared, contrasting the principal results from each trial. Additionally, clinical experience from each trial is highlighted, identifying desirable system design features for clinical use. Conclusions: Increasingly, evidence from patient imaging studies indicate that a contrast in dielectric properties between healthy and cancerous breast tissues exists. However, despite the significant and encouraging results from patient trials, variation still exists in the microwave imaging system design. Significance: This study seeks to define the current state of the art in microwave breast imaging, and identify suitable design characteristics for ease of clinical use.