Microwave Reflectometry Sensing System for Low-Cost in-vivo Skin Cancer Diagnostics

Abstract

Skin cancer is one of the most commonly diffused cancers in the world and its incidence rates have constantly increased in recent years. At the current state of the art, there is a lack of objective, quick and non-invasive methods for diagnosing this condition; this, combined with hospital crowding, may lead to late diagnosis. Starting from these considerations, this paper addresses the implementation of a microwave reflectometry based-system that can be used as a non-invasive method for the in-vivo diagnosis and early detection of biological abnormalities, such as skin cancer. This system relies on the dielectric contrasts existing between normal and anomalous skin tissues at microwave frequencies (in a frequency range up to 3 GHz). In particular, a truncated open-ended coaxial probe was designed, manufactured and tested to sense (in combination with a miniaturized Vector Network Analyzer) the variations of skin dielectric properties in a group of volunteer patients. The specific data processing demonstrated the suitability of the system for discriminating malignant and benign lesions from healthy skin, ensuring simultaneously effectiveness, low cost, compactness, comfortability and high sensitivity.INDEX TERMS cancer diagnostics, dielectric permittivity, frequency-domain measurements, in-vivo measurements, microwave reflectometry, open ended coaxial probe, pca, skin abnormalities, skin cancer

A Method for Sensing Dielectric Properties of Thin and Flexible Conductive Biocomposites

“…Microwave Reflectometry (MR) is a versatile technique used for various monitoring and diagnostic applications in numerous fields, including non-destructive evaluation [ 35 , 36 ], medical diagnostics [ 37 , 38 , 39 ], geophysical investigation [ 40 , 41 , 42 ], and remote sensing. This method is advantageous for its cost-effectiveness, prompt feedback, the capability for remote control, and high measurement accuracy.…”

“…It was adopted in combination with a sensing element (SE) properly designed for the present application. More in detail, an m-VNA has several considerable advantages over classic benchtop VNAs in terms of reduced cost (about 100 euros), portability, reduced size, simpler functionality, and a good cost-to-performance ratio with good metrological performance [ 38 ]. These characteristics serve as a foundation for the development of the innovative procedure for non-destructive biocomposite film characterization, which represents the main novelty of this work.…”

Microwave reflectometry system for non-invasive wood moisture content monitoring

“…MR technique is a powerful method for a wide range of monitoring and diagnostic applications [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The principle behind this technique relies on measuring the reflection scattering parameter, S11(f) [30], of the sensing element (SE) when this is placed in contact with the material under test, and in relating it to the water content.…”

Skin monitoring and diagnostics: towards a wearable low-cost system

“…On such basis, the aim of this work is the development of a low-cost, wearable skin monitoring system suitable for skin hydration monitoring but also for future applications in skin cancer prevention. Previous works demonstrated the feasibility of microwave-based systems for these applicative scenarios [21,22]. In fact, both scenarios involve a sudden change in the dielectric properties of the skin depending on the ongoing chemicalphysical process.…”