New Delhi: Researchers at an engineering and technology institute in Hyderabad have patented an antenna-based microwave technology that could eventually help doctors detect abnormalities in breast and skin tissue without cutting into the body.
Although the patent is still undergoing computer simulations and is yet to be tested on patients, researchers from the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology have said that it could significantly reduce the costs and delays in detecting cancer.
“Cancer has become increasingly prevalent, and delayed detection can significantly affect treatment outcomes. This research is also deeply personal to me. I lost my mother to cancer, and the experience made me realise the importance of timely detection and treatment. Our motivation is to explore whether microwave sensing can eventually contribute to a more accessible, non-invasive approach to identifying tissue abnormalities at an early stage,” said K Vidya Sagar, lead author and professor at VNR-VJIET, in a statement.
The technology, however, is not new. The basic idea behind it is that microwave imaging uses non-ionising electromagnetic waves that interact differently with tissues. As the antenna sends microwaves towards the tissue and then records the reflected signals and looks for differences.
The VNR-VJIET team is designing a system that can detect the electromagnetic differences that might be associated with tumours or other abnormal tissues.
The patented innovation is a microstrip patch antenna, which is still being tested in computer simulations. In the next phases of the research, the team will manufacture more of the antennas, test them out in labs, and then conduct clinical studies.
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Decades of research
This is hardly the first microwave cancer detector. Several researchers have been studying this technology for decades. Their aim is to make breast cancer detection less invasive.
So far, tests include exposing patients to ionising radiation, a type of energy released by charged particles which can damage molecules inside living tissues, even DNA. Cancer detection also involves compression where breasts are flattened between two plastic plates.
In 2018, Japanese researchers released a pilot study using a portable microwave breast imaging technique. They had tested it out among five breast-cancer patients where tumours were detected. However, the sample size at the time was too small to establish the technology as a success.
Earlier, in September, a team of Swedish researchers released a review of such microwave breast imaging techniques and whether they had any clinical potential. The review concluded that while several researchers might soon be reaching early clinical trial stages, there isn’t enough research into how accurate microwave imaging could be.