Inductive Phase Shift as a Future Cost Effective Diagnostic Tool in Breast Cancer Localization: A Prologue Study

摘要

Breast cancer continues to be a major "nuisance" in the world. The cause of breast cancer is still unknown and is not preventable in any certain way. This is why early detection represents a very important factor in its treatment and consequently the survival rate. This paper describes a fascinating technique enabling the detection of malignant mass upon changes in the inductive phase shift. We have developed an analytical 3D finite element model based on a coupled coil system consisting of an excitation and a detecting coil which are vertically sandwiching the breast tissue. The results show that the system is able to detect and localize tumor size as small as 0.6 mm in conjunction to the smallest detectable tumor size by the conventional high end MRI that is 1 mm. On the other hand, the current gold standard breast imaging modality that is the X-ray mammography and Ultrasound could only detect breast lesions of at least 5 mm and 2 mm sizes respectively.