Early Breast Cancer Detection Using Doppler Frequency Shift

A theoretical model is presented to investigate the possibility of using a hybrid imaging method for early breast cancer detection. The model exploits the high contrast in elasticity between healthy and malignant tissues. It uses an acoustic excitation to cause vibrations in the different tissues of the breast depending on their elasticity. When the breast is illuminated by a microwave signal, the interaction between the vibrating tissues and the microwave signal causes a Doppler shift in frequency. Amplitude of that shift depends on the elasticity of the tissue that causes the scattering. The calculated results presented in this paper show that value of the scattering contrast between the malignant and healthy tissues is increased significantly when using the proposed method, which does mean an increase in the detection capability of the imaging system.