Compact microwave applicator for thermal therapy of breast cancer: Comparative assessment of arrays operating at 434 and 915 MHz

摘要

The objective of this study was to design a comfortable, compact, wearable and easy-to-manufacture microwave applicator affording conformal thermal therapy of breast tumors. Several configurations of patch antenna arrays operating at 434 and 915 MHz were evaluated in terms of average power absorption (aPA) ratio in target tumors and impedance matching. Models incorporated breast tissue and simulated target tumors of varying size positioned at several location within breast tissue. Single antenna simulations show that the performance at the two frequencies is dependent on the model dimensions. However, multiple element arrays at 915 MHz can achieve greater aPA ratio levels (up to 60%) than arrays at 434 MHz for deep targets in large breast models.